


Project PENNY

by Mattskitchen67



Series: Hollow Legacy AU [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Airships, Alternate Universe, Androids, Conspiracy, Cybernetic Prosthetics, Explicit Language, F/F, F/M, Hollow Legacy AU, Neon is Trans, No Magic AU, Only Dust and Aura, Other, Post-Post-Apocalypse, Post-Timeskip, Redemption, Reimagined Characters and Powers, Revenge, Romance, Sexual References, Slow Burn, Trauma and Healing, everyone is ooc, longfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-23 12:47:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 85,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23378257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mattskitchen67/pseuds/Mattskitchen67
Summary: Posing as the captain of a salvaging ship, Cinder Fall and her misfit crew discover a stolen stash of top-secret Atlas Military technology. Among the equipment is something unexpected: a bizarrely friendly android calling herself PENNY. Cinder and her associates are soon thrust into the middle of a massive conspiracy, fighting to stop a mysterious force maneuvering behind the scenes in Solitas that threatens all of Remnant.A continuation/soft reboot of my previous Hollow Legacy fics, taking place eight years after Part 1, and almost five years after Part 2. While there are plenty of continuing storylines and references to the previous fics, I'm writing this as a standalone story to be accessible to new readers as well.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Ruby Rose, Cinder Fall/Penny Polendina, Flynt Coal/Neon Katt
Series: Hollow Legacy AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1587649
Comments: 17
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

Crimson fire consumed everything.

Cinder stared at her home--What _had_ been her home less than twenty minutes ago. From where she was hiding, it looked like someone had grabbed up the whole building, and, like a toy ripped from a child, threw it into a furnace. The street was deafening to her. Every sound from the sirens, to soldiers warning onlookers, and even the cries of Cinder’s adopted family, were drowned out by the roar of flames climbing into the night sky.

Laying on her stomach, Cinder was under the bushes in a neighbor’s garden, separated from the commotion. It wasn’t hard for a child her age to stay hidden from the fire’s blood-red light.

How long had she planned this?

How many nights had she flicked on her stolen lighter in the basement, surrounded by fuel, only to back down at the last moment? Only for the next day to be filled with the same continued abuse.

When Cinder fantasized about turning that basement into hell, she wouldn’t run away. She’d stand among the raging flames spreading through the house and her body, reducing them both to ash. To her adopted family, she was more like a slave or a dog than a sibling. With every beating, every reprimand, her resolve to escape her caged life was fed. And the only way to escape was by destroying it all along with herself.

But tonight, while staring into the flickering light, absorbed by dreams of fire, Cinder’s hand slipped--

And inferno followed.

Face to face with her fantasy, Cinder didn’t step into the flames like she planned. She didn’t embrace her revenge. When the heat licked at her skin, pulling her inward with a gentle searing hand, Cinder ran.

She ran, screaming for her family to get out of the house.

To the tormentors she’d dreamed of killing for so long, she screamed for them to run.

Run! Please, run!

Hiding in her neighbor’s bushes, watching the chaos she inflicted, Cinder trembled. She was triumphant. She’d taken everything from them, finally giving them a taste of her pain.

But instead of reveling in her victory… Cinder couldn’t stop crying.

A child, laying against the cold earth, sobbed as her world burned away into a crimson end.

**Part One: Her New Purpose**

Cinder’s room lurched, almost throwing her out of bed before she got the chance to sit up and hold onto the sheets for dear life. The vinyl disk in a nearby turntable starting skipping--knocked out of alignment with the room around it. Its owner rubbed her eyes with her right hand, grumbling as the floor stabilized, and the much-needed calming tunes turned into aggravating repetition.

Surprise turning into boiling anger, Cinder rose, and with a few steps, reached the wall and harshly pressed the intercom button. “What the hell is going on out there, Neon!” Cinder snapped.

“Just towing some ice off our target,” a cheerful voice called back over the speaker. “Oh! BTW, we found the ship Lime told us about.” The voice laughed absentmindedly, unfazed by Cinder’s tone.

Cinder punched the call button in response. “Tell me before you try to tear _my_ ship apart!”

“Sorry, Captain! Me and Ruby’s got this covered, but feel free to come and chaperone us.”

Cinder ground her teeth in response. Her grunts back in Vacuo couldn’t even breathe without her order. How low had the mighty Cinder Fall crawled to during these last two years?

_\--the answer… when I--_

_\--the answer… when I--_

_\--the answer… when I--_

Glaring over her shoulder at the skipping record, Cinder took a moment to calm down before calling back the bridge. “I’ll be right down,” she said, more annoyed at being shaken out of her daydreaming than any damage Neon might have done to the ship.

Reaching out, Cinder fixed her record player, and soft jazz coherently returned to the room.

_I don’t need to know the answer… when I’m with you..._

Cinder’s left arm fell to her side, slightly longer than her remaining right arm. It was covered in a metallic black weave instead of muscles and skin and had monstrous sharp claws instead of fingers. The left sleeve of her burgundy shirt was cut off at the shoulder to reveal the entire prosthetic. Her replaced arm passing as organic or realistic wasn’t her concern. Like the colorful warning on a poisonous reptile, the intent was intimidation.

After delicately lifting the disk off the turntable and sliding it back in its sleeve, Cinder returned it to a shelf with the rest of her collection. She couldn't have been lying in bed for too long. The midday light was still shining from the skylight in her quarters, giving a washed-out appearance to the tapestries and carpets that surrounded the bed that lay in the center of the hexagonal room. Cinder flicked off a switch on a nearby space heater--the sun would do its job just fine, for now--and put on the suspenders hanging around her waist. All she needed to do before she could present herself was moving her short dark hair over the left side of her face, partially hiding a large eyepatch and the burns running down the side of her face and neck.

To exit the room, Cinder unlocked three deadbolts of various make and style. Her soundproof sanctuary led out into a utility tunnel that ran along the top of the ship. She valued her personal space, with _personal_ being the focus. After sliding the three metal bolts back into place, Cinder descended a steep spiral staircase into the crew area.

Her stride rang against the metal floor of the ship’s second deck. The announcement of her approach was wasted on the empty hall between her crew's quarters, echoing for no one to hear as she moved up a short ramp and into the bridge.

Immediately to her right, sat a Faunus, Blake Belladonna, reading a book at the communication station. She had raven-black hair and two feline ears, always on alert, for her trait. Blake glanced at Cinder with her piercing amber eyes. They looked like they could read through anything you were hiding, not that Blake would tell anyone. Blake minded her own business, and Cinder was grateful for that. As quickly as she looked up, Blake returned to her book, ignoring the ship's operations around her.

In front of Cinder, peeking up from the back of one of the pilot’s seats were two hair buns, their owner’s legs on the dashboard, covered in legwarmers. One had a blue stripe and the other pink, and from the gap between the top of them and the edge of her skirt, Cinder knew they weren’t for warmth. The legs dropped as the pilot turned and faced Cinder. “How was the beauty sleep, Captain?” the other cat-based Faunus of the crew asked while filing her nails.

Neon was the most conspicuous member of the crew. Aside from being a Faunus, she had a small heart tattoo under her left eye and a dozen or so stars that were inked from her right temple to her jaw. Under her chair, a red-orange tail swayed back and forth, the same natural color as the hair on her head, which was tied up in two messy hair buns. They looked like they'd once been colored blue and purple, but the dye had been left unattended with just a vestige of faded streaks.

Cinder ignored her and looked out the bridge window to the ice sheets extending to the horizon a hundred yards under her hovering ship. Below them, two cables had been shot from the grappling cannons on the sides, sinking into a chunk of ice that just finished getting towed off a partially buried shipwreck.

“How’s the prize?” Cinder asked.

“Pirate,” Neon blew on her nails, “just like Lime said. You sure this is a good idea? I did some runs for these guys back in the day, and you do not want to work for them, let alone take their stuff.”

“It never was their _stuff_ ,” Cinder said. “And I’d be surprised if they survived in these conditions.”

“It’s not even that cold, Captain.”

“Damn natives,” Cinder grumbled under her breath. She turned away and said even more quietly, “And I told you to stop calling me that.”

“Atlas's Code of Law states,” Blake spoke up, “that salvaging from criminals or terrorists is prohibited, and the return of property to their respective corporations must be handled by the authorities.” She flipped a page of her book and kept reading. “And we are on the border of their territory.”

Neon frowned. “Since when do _you,_ of all people, give a shit about Atlas?”

“Oh, I don’t care,” Blake looked up. “Fuck them. I just don’t want us attracting trouble.”

“Bet you were more fun back when you were a terrorist,” Neon said. “The career change to Grimm Hunting must have done something to your head.”

“I don’t have to remind _you_ how dangerous Atlas is.”

“But this girl’s hormones ain’t cheap, so as long as we don’t broadcast what we found, it shouldn't be a big deal.”

Blake returned to her book without a word.

Cinder walked back near the door and across from Blake where the ship’s systems station was, and called the engine bay. “We’re taking her down, Ruby.”

“Alright!” Ruby, the ship’s mechanic and default engineer called back. “Just a second, nuh, and… there!”

The screen on Cinder's station lit up to show the Dust power distributing away from the grappling anchors and stabilizer wings, allowing Neon to slowly pilot the descent to the surface.

“Ladies and gentle _m_ _an_ of the cargo ship _Paradise_ ,” Neon called over the intercom, “we have begun our descent. Please walk around freely as I return you to the bosom of our sweet mother earth.”

The ship reached the icy surface, lurching as Cinder gripped onto a nearby handrail, almost losing her footing, and Blake took off the seatbelt she’d secretly applied during the announcement.

“Nailed it,” Neon said.

Cinder shakily called Ruby from the station again. “We’re heading out.”

“OK, Cinder. Be safe out there.”

Blake stood up behind her and closed her book. “I’ll be in cargo bay one.”

Neon looked over her shoulder, and from her own dashboard called the engine bay. “Hey, Ruby! Your girlfriend said she loves you very much, and she’ll miss you out there.”

“Aw,” Ruby exclaimed. “Give Blake a smooch for me.”

“For you, I’ll swing that way.”

Blake ignored their teasing and walked down the hall away from the bridge.

“Your girlfriend’s a treasure and you don’t deserve her!” Neon yelled out.

“Love you too, Neon,” Blake called back flatly.

Ignoring their childish banter, Cinder called the cargo bay below them. “Flynt. Ready to go?”

“Just finished fueling the mech with Dust,” her crew member called back. “Whenever you’re ready, Boss.”

Cinder shut off the call and turned to walk out of the bridge.

Neon stood up and stretched, straightening her jean jacket before chasing after her employer. “Mind if I get a minor advance on my next paycheck,” she asked, catching up to her.

Cinder frowned. “Why?”

“A new Nebula Glimmer album.”

“Didn’t they just release one? You forced us to listen to it.”

“They’re android virtual idols. It’s written for them. I mean... they’ve got supercomputer brains and cosmic inspiration!” Neon grinned and winked. “Gotta keep up the kayfabe.”

Cinder thought back to one of the far too many times Neon showed her some of their live performances. It was creepy how real those bots were looking these days. She could remember when Atlas started developing androids but never imagined they could look so human. Barely any uncanny valley anymore, not that the dressed-up idols Neon was obsessed with could pass with the digital LED hairstyles they had going on.

After a moment, Cinder gave her answer. “You get paid when the rest of us do.”

Neon puffed out her cheeks. “I wanted to pre-order it though.”

 _It’s not even out yet!_ Cinder thought, glaring at her pilot.

They descended some metal stairs to the bottom deck, just in time to see Flynt walk away from the door controls in the cargo bay below. The loading ramp at the front of the ship dropped and slammed into the icy ground outside with a crunchy thud. Nearby, Blake had already arrived and prepped herself, now dressed in a catsuit and a white tailcoat, buckling a katana on her side as she walked toward the exit.

The frigid air flew inside as Cinder suppressed a shiver.

She hated the cold.

 _Hated_ it.

Solitas was an icy hell.

“You found it already?” Flynt called up at them with a thick Atlesian accent as he tipped back his grey fedora. “Lime just told us about a rumor.”

Neon leaned on the rails halfway down the stairs, staying up so she wouldn’t be asked to help with the work below. “A _specific_ rumor, that I could trace the source of from the crews Lime would have talked to during the last few days. After that, it was just finding their route and following it backward until I found the ship. No biggie. It used to be my job to avoid air traffic, after all.”

Cinder stepped off the stairs and walked up to Flynt. He was around her and the rest of the crews’ age, scattered around their mid-twenties, and the only true Atlesian on board, not that they held that against him. Looking at Flynt, you'd never guess he worked on a salvaging ship. You'd say he was a rogue musician, not a worker. He wore a vest with an untucked shirt underneath, a loose blue tie that matched the band on his hat, and sunglasses that he claimed helped with the sun's glare. Every once and awhile, Cinder remembered that all the members of the crew she'd cobbled together weren't made for this line of work, not that she could claim she was any different.

Flynt turned to Cinder and asked under his breath, “Isn’t salvaging stolen goods a little…”

“Better being sold by us than the people who killed the previous owners,” Cinder said.

Flynt blinked and raised his eyebrows. “That’s cold,” he mumbled as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Go prep the Loader Mech,” Cinder ordered.

He nodded and activated his Aura. Blue energy erupted out of his chest and spread across his body, covering him and giving off a faint refreshing heat through the nearby air as his lifeforce manifested. Flynt turned and stepped away. Well, a version of him did. The first Flynt stayed next to Cinder as an identical copy split out of him and walked back to the second cargo bay where the mech was stationed. With nothing to do, the original rolled up his sleeves as if the weather had been slightly warmer than he’d expected.

“Go easy on him, Captain!” Neon called down. “He’s not used to underworld life like the rest of us.”

“There’s nothing _underworld_ about salvaging,” Cinder called back, dodging Neon’s latest attempt to find out things she shouldn’t.

Neon frowned. “One day, you’ll spill the beans on how you lost your arm. I bet you were a hitman.”

 _And I bet, if I had a choice, I’d have hired a different pilot weeks ago,_ Cinder thought, half meaning it.

The second Flynt returned piloting an industrial yellow mech suit with various tools attached to its forklike claws for hands. The mech’s hover-treads at the bottom of its legs slid down the bay and up to Cinder and the group, prompting Blake to walk down the ramp just ahead of them to scout ahead. The rest of the outgoing group, the Flynt piloting the mech, another Flynt splitting out of the original, and, unfortunately, Cinder, momentarily followed after her.

Neon looked out at them and waved goodbye. “See you later, Flynt!”

“I’m not going anywhere,” the first Flynt said. “I’m still helping you and Ruby watch the ship.”

“Just being nice.”

He shrugged and folded his arms as he looked out at the team moving onto the solid glacial ice sheets.

It was cold, and it was Grimm-Country. A great combination for Cinder, who had little tolerance for either. Growing up, she'd avoided their territory before she settled in Vacuo, a very warm place. Even with his powerful Semblance, Flynt never trained in the art of killing monsters. Out of every member of the crew, Blake was the only one who was qualified to deal with Grimm, and from watching her work, Cinder wouldn’t want anyone else out there with her.

Flynt glanced around at the flat landscape. “If I get eaten again, I’m asking for a raise.”

“Don’t let any of your Splits wander off, and you won’t,” Blake called back.

They’d landed close to the south-east shore of the Frozen Sea, a huge body of water in the middle of the Solitas continent, entirely frozen year-round, except for one or two weeks in the summer. A few hundred meters west of the ship, a pillar of water erupted between cracks in the ice. It climbed high enough to knock any passing-by ship clean out of the sky, and warm mist splashed around the group. The geysers in the area were the most likely culprit for the pirate ship crashing here. Luckily it didn’t end up in some boiling pool or get buried underground by the daily seismic quakes this side of the sea was known for.

Cinder called Neon over her hand radio. “Keep an eye on the scanner. I don’t want to get caught off guard in there.”

The sound of techno-pop music blasting on the ship’s speakers came back through the radio as Neon called back. “On it! Safe treasure hunting!” She began singing half a line of the Nebula Glimmer song before Cinder cut the connection with a scowl.

Approaching the pirate ship, it didn't take them long to find a massive breach in the side of the hull, like an open maw for them to climb down and pillage inside. Leaving the mech and the Flynt piloting it behind, the three salvagers descended into the halls, slanted sideways from being sunken in the ice. Flynt and Cinder were guided by flashlights, but Blake moved on ahead, her Faunus night vision all she needed.

Inside the tunnels, icicles were forming out of the water and ice seeping inside the crashed vessel, slowly covering every surface it could reach. The cold air smelled stale, every one of Cinder’s steps echoing through it, the sound of metal creaking under her feet like the floor would fall apart after a single wrong move. Every few minutes, the groan of ice grinding against the outside of the hull, threatened to tear the ship apart. The ice pushing in was eager to seal the halls solid, preserving the wreck at the bottom of the sea until long after any humans were left alive to dig it back out.

As the group descended further inside, Blake hopped across a gap. The metal was silent as her light feet carried her forward around a corner and she stopped in her tracks.

“Well…” she said, her voice reverberating. “I found the crew.”

Flynt and Cinder caught up to her and shined their lights down the next bend, revealing a dozen torn up bodies strewn around the hall.

“Oh, God,” Flynt gasped.

“I’ll check the bridge for survivors,” Blake said, moving on ahead and disappearing into the shadows.

Cinder crouched down and looked at the nearest corpse. They were surrounded in crystalized blood, frozen as it pooled and dripped around them. Tracing her light along the walls and ceiling of the hall revealed gashes and slices opened up in them. It looked like a giant uncovered blender had sprinted through this part of the ship. From the splattered gore around the metal, it looked like the ship itself was bleeding.

“I’m not an expert,” Cinder said, “but I don't think the crash did this.” She stepped forward, the sole of her boots stepping on some limp razor-thin wire that was draped around the bodies. “Looks like they were coming out of their quarters and got cut down before they could fight back.”

Flynt shined a light up and down one of the bodies and composed himself. “Pretty sure it wasn’t a Grimm either,” he said as he pointed out the injuries like a coroner performing an autopsy. “The attacks are too focused on vital points. Grimm maul and tear, they don’t act efficiently. I studied… I’ve _seen_ Grimm attack wounds and this looks nothing like them.”

Cinder pointed her light down at the far end of the hall, spotting a likely explanation. Two thin blades were sticking out of the wall, sunk into the metal like knives in butter, left behind mid-battle. “So an Atlas Specialist, or a Freelancer like you or Blake? What do you think?”

“Whoever it was, they could take on the entire crew.” Flynt frowned as he turned away from the scene to breathe some cleaner air. “A pirate airship this size should have plenty of Aura-Users, probably some with Semblances to fight back. But this is a complete slaughter.”

Blake reemerged from the shadowy hallways, back from scouting ahead. “Everyone on the bridge is dead, too. Looks like whoever did this tore it up and caused the ship to crash. I could only get a look inside. It’s caved-in by ice and shredded metal, so the assailant is probably buried in there with them.”

Cinder nodded and started walking forward past the bodies.

“Where are you--?” Flynt called after her.

“To their cargo bay,” Cinder interrupted, nonchalantly.

Blake sighed and followed after her, leaving Flynt in the back. "Really cold, Boss," he mumbled to himself as he carefully stepped around the frozen blood.

It didn’t take long to find where the pirates kept their plunder, a large hold near the back of the ship. Inside were three piles of crates and lockers covered in tarps. The property of the crew’s latest victims.

“That’s more like it,” Cinder said, approaching and using her light to find the ties to undo the cover and see what was hiding underneath.

Before Cinder could find it, the radio at her side crackled as Neon called from the bridge of their ship. “Head’s up, guys. Scanner picked up something coming up inside the ship. It’s reading as a mid-sized Grimm.”

Blake stepped forward and put a hand on the sword at her side. Her amber eyes glowed as she peered through the shadows. Flynt and Cinder shined their lights around as well, focusing in on a scraping sound inside a nearby room with a swung open door leading to darkness.

Emerging from the inky void, a clawed hand reached out of the doorway, gripping the frame and pulling a large lycanthrope body through into the cargo hold. Cinder immediately recognized it as a Beowolf, and a big one. The bleach-white skull resting on its face reflected Cinder and Flynt's flashlights as it raised its nostrils to smell the air, picking up a scent, but not seeing the light shining in its eyes. It found and pawed at a previously unseen corpse, sprawled limply next to one of the tarp-covered piles that had been half uncovered before the pirate was killed. After determining the human was dead, the Grimm moved away, uninterested.

It finally turned toward Cinder and her crew, focusing on Flynt, whose Aura was activated. Eyes flashed as it sensed all three salvagers. Its jaw parted, a hinge opening with a sound like ripping flesh, revealing rows of jagged teeth dripping with black ooze as it snarled at Cinder. The growl rising from deep inside its throat sounded more like the roar of an ancient reptile than its wolf-like shape would suggest. The creature reared up, it’s claws and bony spikes ready to shred Cinder and her crew apart, turning them into permanent residents of the pirates’ icy tomb.

“That’s a problem,” Flynt said as he split a clone out that started rapidly stepping back.

Cinder turned her light back to the tarp. “Blake, you got this, right?”

Blake stepped forward, unsheathing her katana. The thin blade caught the glare from Flynt’s flashlight, the polished metal humming in the cold air like a tuning fork as she honed it forward at the Grimm. She reached to her belt and pulled a Dust-Magazine out and slid it inside the bottom of her weapon’s hilt. Dust spread up the thin edge of her sword, coloring it a dark burning red.

The Grimm let out a furious scream as it pushed off the floor and wildly sprinted at Blake. As it approached, arms flailing, Blake activated her Aura. A flash of purple energy erupted around her as her senses and strength were enhanced to inhuman levels. It felt like the space between her body's cells were charged by pure, unfiltered power, awakening the supernatural potential that she and all advanced Aura-User's possessed. A layer of ice on the floor around Blake scattered away as she whispered to herself the name of her Semblance--

_“Midnight Mirage.”_

The Grimm reached her and tore its bony claws into Blake, shredding through her body. But instead of gore and bones spreading across the floor under it, her corpse disappeared like a black mist, the Grimm swinging through a mere shadow.

With a blast of hot air and the tear of parting flesh, Blake appeared behind the Grimm just as her false image vanished. It was like she teleported through the Grimm's midsection, her katana held in both hands, the path of her sword through the monster traced in flame.

The Beowolf glared down at its torso, as the top of its body slid away from the base, hitting the metal floor in a meaty thud. The bisected body immediately started decomposing into ash that was quickly eaten by the fire from Blake's Dust. The ash combusted for less than a second, a soft orange glow momentarily illuminating the cargo hold before the monster’s remains vanished, sending the room back into pitch blackness.

Blake stood up, wiping the blade of her katana clean as the spent Dust-Magazine dropped out of the hilt, clattering on the metal floor as she slid her weapon into its sheath.

“All clear, Neon,” Cinder said into her radio as she removed the tarp, and the other two crew-members--three if you counted both Flynts--walked over. Underneath the first cover were crates of Dust, metals, and fertilizer. All standard finds on any cargo ship targeted by pirates, however--

 _Shit,_ Cinder thought as she put her right hand on her chin, not exactly sure what move to make.

Every box in the pirates' possession had an insignia, signifying the previous owner. Blake and Flynt stared at it as well, their stomachs dropping as they saw the unmistakable emblem of the Atlas Military.

  
  


“This is a bad idea,” Blake said.

“Now you tell me,” Cinder responded. “We haven't had a proper job in weeks. It's not the time to be picky.” It’d taken a couple hours and several trips between the two ships to haul everything they wanted from the pirates. They’d just finished tying their loot down in the main cargo bay as the loading ramp slammed shut, and Blake approached her employer.

“There’s a difference between being picky and being stupid. Salvagers who knowingly retrieve Atlas property will be treated as harshly as if they stole the property themselves," Blake said, reciting Atlas's Code of Law again. "An Atlas prison is the last place I want to be, and _this_ ,” she gestured to the cargo, “just puts a target on us.”

“I understand the risks,” Cinder said, dismissively.”

“You can’t just hand-wave the--”

“Ruby okayed it,” Cinder said, cutting to the heart of the issue. “And she has more reason to fear Atlas than either of us.”

Deep purple energy flashed in Blake’s eyes, snuffed out as quickly as it appeared. She narrowed her glare at Cinder, knowing she’d been beaten. “Watch it, _Captain_ _,_ ” she said. “Ruby owes you. Don’t abuse that.”

Cinder silently met the deadly Faunus’s eyes. Blake turned and walked up the stairs, leaving Flynt and Cinder to finish the job alone.

The intercom rang with Neon's announcement that they were taking off, interrupting the tense atmosphere. Soon, _Paradise_ rose off the solid surface of the sea to put as much possible distance between them and the dead pirates. The elements should hide the ship before anyone else found it, Cinder hoped.

As the ship stabilized, Flynt stepped toward Cinder as the last of his Splits absorbed back into his Aura and he shut it off. He blinked several times like he had a sudden head rush--his usual reaction to the process--before he took off his hat and wiped his forehead. “I hope your or Lime’s connections can sell this discreetly.”

“I’ll be careful,” Cinder said. “And it’s only a one-time thing. Trust me, I’m not happy about it either. We’ll get rid of it at Hailstone, and then we’re done with it.”

Flynt shrugged, some anxiety still lingering in his eyes. “If you’re confident, then I’ll trust you, Boss.”

Cinder looked at one of the Atlas lockers. It was roughly the size of a person, and the only item she wasn’t sure what was contained inside. There was a second one in the pirates’ hold, but it was open and empty with no indication of what it was holding.

Picking up a crowbar, Cinder held it out to Flynt. “Are you as curious as I am about what’s in our final present?”

As it turned out, it took way more than a crowbar to open the damn thing. After a drill, a blowtorch, and deciding against using the mech to rip it in half, Cinder finally got her prosthetic's claws pried inside a gap, finally feeling the lock give.

“Is it just me,” Flynt said, holding all the tools, “or does it look like a coffin.”

“Just shut your mouth and help me with--”

The bolts finally shattered, and Cinder stumbled back as the locker slid open with a hiss, revealing its contents.

Flynt tilted his head to the side, looking it up and down. “Huh,” he said before clicking his tongue. He wasn’t expecting anything particular, but this was certainly different.

Cinder grabbed her radio. “Ruby?”

The sound of some metal and screws scattering on the ground came through as the mechanic answered quickly to cover up her fumble. “What’s up!”

“What do you know about android tech?”

“Uh… not much. Some of the basics, I guess.”

“Come down here and take a look at this for me.”

"Got it. Just one-- Ow! Yeah. We're good. Be right down!"

Cinder put her radio away and stared at the locker. 

Inside was a girl. From her sleeping, expressionless face, she looked like a young adult human with orange curly chin-length hair and realistic freckles sprinkled on a pale innocent face. But from the neck and shoulders down, its true nature was laid bare.

Like a synthetic replication of a female gymnast, the body was constructed out of white metallic plates. Similar to the type of craftsmanship that created Cinder’s arm, but for an entire body. An Atlas constructed, expensive as hell, android.

In stark contrast to the disarming face, Cinder could tell at a glance that this was a machine built for killing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading the first chapter of the final (and hopefully the longest and bestest) entry in my Hollow Legacy AU. I've been planning this one for a long time, and I'm glad I've finally started writing it down into something better than a bunch of cool plot points and ideas rattling around in my head.
> 
> Because of changes in my personal life, the whole state of the world, and major differences in my writing process for this fic, new chapters will take a lot longer to come out compared to my older stuff. I need to work on my writing speed anyway, but I wanted to put a warning in here to lower expectations.
> 
> I hope you'll enjoy reading this as much I'll have writing it.


	2. Chapter 2

The easiest way to figure out how something works is to take it apart piece by piece, revel in the craftsmanship, and put it back together again. This is a foolproof plan for any mechanic; unless the person who made the equipment you've been tasked to understand was way smarter than you.

Unfortunately for Ruby, whoever built the Atlas android sitting in her workshop, was _way_ smarter than she was.

“Shit!” Ruby cried as she jumped back from an electrical spark.

Even in its storage locker, the android's interior mechanisms had been damaged during the pirates' initial theft or their fatal crash in the ice. Ruby was in the process of getting a better look inside, maybe even fix it up a little, but she might have crossed a wrong wire or flipped a bad switch somewhere. And now motors were twitching, and the thing's eyes were lighting up as it sat up rigid before--

Nothing.

The android turned on but stayed motionless.

“Okay then… You’re on now,” Ruby said. She dropped her goggles and pulled back her long dark hair before rolling her chair up to where the robot was sitting.

The robot stared back blankly. Ruby chose to take its silence as it agreeing with her that it was indeed on.

“You’ll stay still?” Ruby asked, lifting her tools again.

The robot agreed.

“Good. Let’s open you up.” Ruby double-checked its lack of response by waving her hand in front of the robot’s irises, camera-like but so realistic. Thankfully, it seemed dead again. She straightened her work gloves and red hoodie sleeves before she returned to prying open the chest. The android's outer plates (the only part of the thing she understood, even with her experience with prosthetics) were apparently designed to open up for easier maintenance. “Not everyone can afford cybernetics this good, and you’re literally made out of them,” Ruby said, glancing down at all the android’s limbs.

She finished opening up the chest armor, and revealed… she had no idea. In place of a heart or battery, there was a strange white orb that gave off a faint glow. It was trapped between bolted-together metal and tubes, transferring the energy through the rest of the body. Every so often, they’d pulse in a way that reminded Ruby of veins.

“What are you?” Ruby mumbled. The medical technology and android design techniques she recognized, but she'd never seen anything like that power source. Cracking open the head was out of the question. She was too scared to try to take apart the brain or whatever androids used instead of brains. Processors? She wasn’t a computer or Dust engineer, she avoided those classes-- _Focus, Ruby,_ she told herself before deciding against touching the alien device without a plan.

“I don’t think you’re powered by Dust,” she said, leaning back in her chair. What isn’t powered by Dust? Ruby wondered, which was stupid because _everything_ was powered by Dust. 

Her tools, the ship, the weapons, even entire cities and Kingdoms relied on the alien material. The Atlas Empire was built on Dust mining and export, why would they make something that wasn’t powered by it?

“Where’s my thing?” Ruby snapped her fingers with its name on the tip of her tongue. She knew what it did, it scanned for things, and she needed it because she had a hunch.

Ruby rolled back her chair and pulled herself up, placing one jean covered leg down on the metal floor of her workshop. Then she had her other leg--her metal leg--support her weight as she slowly stood up before walking over to her workbench.

Her workshop was located near the back of the second deck of _Paradise_ , behind the loading elevator, but placed right before the engine bay. It used to be the medical room, and they still kept those supplies in a corner by the door, but when Ruby renovated the place, she claimed it for herself. With Cinder's permission, of course. The old operating table was still in the center of the room, which Ruby used as an extra workspace. She’d also brought in two workbenches and put them in the back starboard corner. One held bolted down machinery, and the other was currently cluttered. Across from the benches, on the port side, was the cot she used when she was up too late at night and didn't want to drag her leg all the way to her quarters.

Between her rolling chair and the far workbench was an extension cord she’d laid down earlier, so she had to get up and walk. She _could_ walk, the prosthetic made that possible, but it was her workshop. She shouldn’t have to walk in her own workshop if she didn’t want to.

With a subtle limp you’d only notice if you were looking for it, Ruby reached where she’d put the scanner and flipped it around in her hand, before wincing in pain.

"Shit!" Ruby gripped the workbench. The edge of her prosthetic's socket was digging into her flesh. Her thigh, what was left of it, was being crushed and squeezed from setting her weight down on it. The connection between her real and artificial nerves fired signals that shot up her body like burning worms chewing through her side.

The doctor had said it would get worse in spring as the weather warmed up, but knowing wasn’t really… knowing. Damn it, whatever. It didn’t matter why. It just hurt!

“I’m good,” she said, convincing herself. “You’re good.” She repeated this out loud until the pain died down, or she just got used to it. Testing things, she put her weight on her leg and stepped down a couple times. She could deal with it.

Ruby glanced back at the android, blankly looking in her direction.

“Don’t tell,” she said, pointing at it.

Once again, the robot agreed.

“Good.”

Ruby stood up straight and started walking back to her chair when Blake opened the door and came into the workshop from the front side of the ship. Not a second too early.

“Coffee?” Blake asked, holding up two thermoses, one steamed with the smell of mocha, Ruby’s favorite, and Blake sipped her tea from the other.

“Thanks, babe,” Ruby said and took a sip of the caffeinated beverage. Perfection. Just what she needed to get past her latest episode. She sat back down in her rolling chair and put the drink on the table near the robot.

“Flynt told me about… that.” Blake motioned to the robot, raising an eyebrow at the realistic freckles on its pale face. “Weird.”

“Yeah, it’s some high-level stuff. I don’t even know where to start.”

Blake walked up and hugged Ruby from behind. “Keeping you busy?”

“This could keep me busy for weeks!” Ruby glanced over at her other projects on the operating table next to her. “Between this and their 3D camera tech, we hit the jackpot this time.”

Blake rested her head on Ruby’s, sensing the wide grin on her partner’s face and hummed happily with her.

“What have you been up to?” Ruby asked as she adjusted her scanner’s settings.

“Just cleaning _Blooming Shroud._ ”

“Nice,” Ruby said and meant it.

“You’re the only person who likes fixing weapons, Ruby,” Blake said. “How about you do it for me.”

“That’s cheating.”

Blake kissed the back of Ruby’s head. “I know,” she sighed, releasing her tension for the first time that day. 

Ruby wished Blake could loosen up around the rest of the crew. It took her a long time to get comfortable around others, especially these days, but Ruby understood.

“You doing all right?” Blake asked.

Ruby stiffened with just the reminder of the lingering pain in her leg. “Pretty aight.”

“That’s good,” Blake said, some sadness creeping into her tone as Ruby felt her move to glance away from the prosthetic. 

Ruby had cut off the right leg of her jeans so she could tinker with her leg when she got bored. This was back before Cinder and the workshop, but the fashion choice stuck, even after she broke the bad habit. It was Ruby's call, so Blake never complained, but sometimes she got a troubled expression just by seeing it. 

Her hug tightened, turning into something that felt smothering. "As long as you're here, where it's safe."

Ruby gripped the scanner, ignoring the feeling that she was being infantilized, and scanned the device held inside the android’s chest.

In a moment she had the results: A faint trace of Aura.

From a machine.

“Oh my god,” Ruby gasped.

“What is it?” Blake finally lifted her head.

Ruby turned the scanner’s screen away and laughed it off. “Huh? Oh, it’s not anything.”

Blake’s ears perked up as she narrowed her eyes, but at that moment, the rest of the crew lead by Cinder walked into the workshop.

“She’s such a cutie!” Neon said, looking at the robot like she wanted to smoosh and rub its cheeks together. “Good find, Flynt. You into red-heads?” She looked over at him as her long tail swayed back and forth by her legs.

As the new crowd arrived, Blake retreated from Ruby, staying near the corner of the room and out of the way of Ruby’s work.

“What did you find out?” Cinder asked as she folded her arms.

“Where to start,” Ruby laughed.

Flynt walked over and glanced at the robot’s limbs. “They’re medical prosthetic-tech, right?”

“It’s like a hybrid,” Ruby explained. “Cybernetic combat-grade medical prosthetics around an android skeleton holding it all together. It’d be crazy to see one of these in action.”

Taking a closer look, Flynt scrutinized the craftsmanship. “These aren’t-- maybe. No, they are.”

Neon raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“I can’t see Atlas ever designing an android like this,” Flynt explained. “I thought the prosthetics were eastern-style at first.”

“Is there a difference?” Blake asked from the side of the room. “A prosthetic is a prosthetic.”

Ruby and Cinder looked at each other before shaking their heads at her.

“The independent settlements here on the eastern side of Solitas have developed their own style and culture around cybernetics,” Flynt explained. “It’s a rejection of Atlas’s standards, which is why you’ll find crazier stuff compared to what Atlas regulation allows. That’s why Cinder’s arm is more experimental than any of the more proven designs. No offense, boss.”

“None taken,” Cinder said, admiring her claws.

Neon put a hand to her chin. “Maybe they scouted some talent from over here to build her.”

“Atlas doesn’t do that,” Ruby said, “unless they’re desperate.”

Cinder nodded. “They’ve had international incident after incident these last few years. From their conflict with the White Fang to isolating themselves from the other Kingdoms. Maybe they’re more desperate behind the scenes than we thought.”

“And we know they’ve been experimenting with weird new tech too,” Neon said.

Ruby and Blake were quiet as they silently nodded.

“Why is this thing so special?” Cinder asked. “It only makes sense to hybridize if prosthetic tech surpassed androids.”

“But this is way more than a hybrid,” Ruby said, turning the robot toward her and opening part of the chest plate, revealing something resembling prosthetic lungs. “She _breathes!_ Like, actual simulated breath and a voice box up here in her neck. She’s the most authentic android model I’ve even heard of.”

Blake stepped forward, the talk finally catching her interest. “There’s no combat advantage in that, right? With these prosthetics, she’d be agile, but not very durable. One good hit from an Aura-User and she’d go down. At any rate, she’s weaker than the new Knights model Atlas is using _and_ more expensive.”

_Unless..._ Ruby thought. The Aura signal coming from the android’s heart was still on her mind, but she said nothing.

Neon turned to Cinder and stood up straight. “So what should we do with her. You’re in charge, after all, Captain.”

Before Cinder could respond, Ruby thought she caught something move in the corner of her eye. She looked over, the robot had its chest opened up, still as a corpse, and its head was tilted up, looking directly at Cinder.

_Wait,_ Ruby thought, _was it looking that way?_

“Hey guys,” Ruby almost said, but before the words left her mouth, the android stood.

Like it was casually getting up to stretch from sitting too long, the android rose to its feet. Before Ruby could understand what she was seeing, it raised a hand and waved to everyone around her.

The room froze. The crew slowly turned to it.

“Salutations!” the android said with a smile.

Blake’s Aura blasted on as she rushed forward between Ruby and the machine, sending Ruby rolling back until her chair came to a stop against Cinder.

The android did a friendly salute. “I am a PENNY Model enforcer android, and I am--” Her saluting arm fell limply to her side like its strings had been cut.

Ruby and the crew looked down at her arm, then back up at her.

Penny, as she called herself, paused her introduction and looked down at her limb. She tried and failed to wiggle it before returning her bright green eyes to the group. “I am _not_ combat-ready!”

  
  


“That’s Atlas’s new battle robot?” Cinder asked.

“I have no idea,” Ruby said, more at the situation than the question.

They'd all retreated to the hall outside. Ruby's workshop was locked-up tight, and she and her employer were looking through the glass window in the door. The android, now trapped inside, was wandering around after she closed up her chest and was curiously checking out the place. She poked at one of the drills, knocking it over and clumsily set it right-side-up again with her functioning arm, sighing in relief when she saw it wasn’t broken.

The crew all turned toward each other in a huddle. “What do we do with it?” Blake asked.

Neon raised a finger. “Hear me out: Mascot.”

“No.“ Blake glared at her.

Flynt cut in with, “Is anyone else thinking about how we found all those pirates dead after they opened one of the two lockers, and the other had a… Penny in it.”

“We found our culprit’s twin,” Blake said.

They all nervously turned back to the window. Penny was standing just on the other side, staring at them. She looked confused by their huddle but smiled politely.

“Either way,” Cinder said, turning away from her, “whatever we end up doing with it doesn’t matter because we still need to talk to Lime about the rest of the cargo.” She checked the time before turning to Neon. “We’ll be at Hailstone in a few minutes. Neon, go pilot us in.”

Before she left, Neon waved at Penny through the glass. The robot smiled and tried to wave back with the limp arm, so her shoulder just wiggled.

Ruby bit her lip but finally turned to her boss. “Can I… Can I study it more?”

“You want it?” Cinder asked flatly.

“Ah… I’m not sure…”

Cinder shrugged. “It’s yours. I won’t mention it to Lime.”

Ruby smiled. “Thanks, Cinder.”

Without another word, Cinder followed after Neon with Flynt right beside her.

Blake eyed the workshop door with a frown. “Be careful,” she told Ruby.

“It can barely walk,” Ruby said, holding up a heavy wrench from her toolbelt. “And I haven’t forgotten _all_ my moves.”

Blake nodded and kissed Ruby’s forehead goodbye before leaving.

As Ruby closed the workshop door behind her, Penny turned to her and smiled, that being her apparent default expression. “Hello, I’m Penny. What’s your name?”

“Ruby, I guess.” She rubbed the back of her head, not sure how to talk to a robot. “Ruby Rose.”

“Nice to meet you, Ruby Rose.” Penny bowed slightly before looking around the ceiling. “We’re on a ship, right? Do you work here?”

“Yeah…”

“And this is your room? Earlier, you looked comfortable here.”

“Well, I share one with Blake, my girlfriend, but this is my workshop.” Ruby raised a hand as if presenting it. “I do sleep here sometimes, I guess.”

“And your captain, the one with the scary arm--” she said _scary_ like it was more exciting than frightening “--what’s her name?”

“Cinder. She’s not really--” Ruby tilted her head back and thought about it. “Maybe she’s a captain. Is that a military thing? I don’t know how that works. She owns the ship, and pays us though.”

“Sounds like a ship captain to me,” Penny said this excitedly as if she’d waited her whole life to meet the captain of a ship or something. “She’s your leader, right?”

“Of course,” Ruby said. _Man, she’s just full of questions, isn’t she?_

Penny nodded, having verified something apparently important and started studying the room again.

“What are you looking for?”

“I’ve never been in a-- Actually, my memory is empty, so I’ve never been anywhere, and I want to learn as much as I can.”

Ruby was keeping her distance and the operating table between her and wherever the robot moved. She folded her arms and continued her own questions. “Do you remember anything about what you are, what your purpose is?”

Penny stood rigid, as if at attention, but still wore her goofy smile. “PENNY Model enforcer android, constructed by the Atlas Military.”

Then silence.

Ruby looked around, about to say something when--

“That’s all I know!”

Ruby sighed. “You can’t tell me anything about the people who made you?” _Specifically, the person who made your heart?_

Penny considered it. “No, I believe at some point when you activated me, you reset my software to its most basic form.”

“Oh, is that what I did?”

“As a result, I’ve seemed to have lost my standard directives.”

“That explains it,” Ruby said. Crossing wires does stuff like that, she guessed. God knew what else she messed up in there as she blindly tried to pry her open.

“Oh!” Penny shouted. She rushed over to one of the workbenches and looked at something nestled between the scrap metal. “Is this you?”

Ruby walked over, disarmed enough by the robot's cute personality to close the distance, and see what Penny was looking at on the cluttered bench. It turned out to be a half-buried picture frame Ruby forgot she'd kept. The photo depicted her old Team RWBY, back when they were all at Beacon before their troublemaking pitted them against the Kingdoms, and they left the Hunters behind. A lot had changed in eight long years, but Ruby couldn't help but smile at the memory.

“Yeah, that’s me, that one’s Blake--you saw her, the one next to me is my friend Weiss, and the one in the middle is my sister Yang.”

Penny looked Ruby over. “You were a Hunter?”

“I had some training, but I left and went to a university,” she said, skipping over some major details the robot didn’t need to know. “Got some experience on some ships, but after I graduated, Blake and I ended up joining the Freelancers, a Grimm hunting guild without Kingdom loyalties. But I had to quit.”

Looking down at Ruby’s leg, Penny spoke more delicately. “You couldn’t afford a combat-grade prosthetic?”

“No… I…” Ruby’s words caught in her throat. It wasn’t that she couldn’t afford one--she couldn’t, but that was beside the point. There was a larger, more fundamental hurdle that blocked her path. “I…” Ruby shrugged and glanced toward the device hidden inside Penny’s chest. “I lost my Aura. That’s all.”

Before Penny could inquire any more, they felt the ship lower in altitude. A quick walk to the windows revealed they were coming down out of the clouds and arriving at their destination.

Hailstone Outpost was built on top of, and on the side of, a massive jagged cliff. The upper-half was built among the ruins of an ancient metropolis from before the calamity, but it was the other half that descended down the cliffside that was more iconic. The settlement’s landing pads and docks were anchored against the side of the rock wall, allowing airships to fly right up to and land on the vertical shipyard. Any and all hangars, fueling stations, or scrap yards were in artificial caves that’d been dug out next to them. The first time she saw the settlement, Ruby remembered thinking that it was a marvel of architecture worthy of respect. It'd been built high above the ground to avoid any Grimm while utilizing the nearby sheer drop. She’d been born and raised in a settlement, so seeing how other populations found ways to survive without the resources of the Kingdoms was always fascinating.

“What is this place?” Penny asked, eyes full of wonder, looking up through the window to get a better view of the cliff rising above them as they landed.

“Hailstone Outpost,” Ruby said. “It’s a refueling settlement for ships traveling between the eastern settlements and Atlas.”

After a few more questions about the stabilization anchors in the cliffside and other ships in view, Penny turned to Ruby. “You have extensive mechanical and engineering training, so if I may ask, what’s wrong with me?”

“Looks like crash damage to me,” Ruby said. “I realigned your plates, but I haven’t found out what’s wrong with your torso yet.”

Penny seemed to think about the report. “If a crash was the cause, then perhaps the connection between my processor and my reactor has been cut.”

“And where would that connection be?” Ruby asked, looking around Penny’s white metallic body.

“Simply put, my spine’s been severed. Which also explains why my motor control functions have been disrupted.”

Ruby blinked. “Yeah, that would do it,” she said, ignoring how she never thought someone would say that in a chipper tone.

Around that time, Neon skipped back into the workshop. “Ship’s ours for a while! Captain, the cutie, and your bae just left to run errands and talk to Lime about the [redacted] cargo.”

Walking up to Penny, Neon looked her dead in the eye, scrutinizing her as harshly as she would a new flavor made by her favorite energy drink’s brand, but smiled.

Penny smiled back.

Neon’s smile spread to a widemouthed grin.

Penny mirrored her, and Ruby wondered if it was a competition at this point.

“Can you sing?” Neon asked enthusiastically.

Ruby snorted while hiding a laugh.

“I have never tried,” Penny said, “but there are a lot of things I haven’t tried.”

“No memory,” Ruby explained.

“I’m Neon.” She shook the robot’s functioning hand. “Neon Katt. Get it?” She waved her tail up and stuck out her tongue to add to the absurdity.

_Wait, is that your real name? Did you make that up?_ Ruby questioned for the first time since meeting her friend. But now that she was here, they had more important problems to discuss.

“I’m Penny! An enforcer android.”

“How tough are you?” Neon asked. “You look tough. That’s combat-grade prosthetics you’re made out of, right?”

“Neon…” Ruby said quietly.

“Uh-huh,” Penny nodded at Neon’s question.

“So what type of--”

Ruby pulled at her friend’s arm and took her a couple steps away from the android.

Neon looked at Ruby, noticing her serious face. “What’s up?”

“She…” Ruby struggled to find the words to bring up the sensitive subject. “She’s not powered by Dust.”

“Then what the hell would she be powered by?” Neon laughed.

“Aura.”

The color drained from Neon’s face. “Oh… Okay, that’s a big deal.”

“I found a strange device in her before she… became alive? It hasn’t properly activated, but it's emitting a low-level Aura signature.”

Neon looked between Ruby and the android, more hesitantly now that she knew what was in its chest. “Why didn’t you tell us right away?”

“I freaked out!” Ruby shrunk into her hoodie. “You know how Blake gets when we bring it up.”

Penny looked between them, not sure what expression to make once the mood shifted. “I have lost track of the conversation. My apologies. Do you wish to know about my Aura capabilities?”

“Eh…” Ruby smiled nervously.

“ _Yes!_ ” Neon sprang forward, her excitement completely artificial. “Tell us _everything._ ”

Penny nodded, happy to help, before explaining that her model was equipped with an Aura Reactor that rivaled any Atlas Special Operative’s natural abilities. This Aura signature could be stored and emitted on command and was the source of the model’s combat potential. “We are constructed out of Aura conducting metal for this purpose, just like your captain’s arm.”

Neon took in the new information but got stuck on something. “Cinder’s prosthetic is Aura conducting?”

“Probably,” Ruby said. “Expensive combat-grades have to be.”

Neon smirked. “Flynt owes me four-hundred lien. He doesn’t think she has an Aura, but I knew it!”

“Her prosthetic being built out of a conductive metal doesn’t prove anything. If she wanted one for fighting, it’s just the material--”

“Shush.” Neon put a finger to Ruby’s lips. “Four-hundred lien, Ruby. That Nebula Glimmer album is mine!”

Penny quietly smiled, and Ruby couldn’t tell if it was from enjoyment or pity.

“Okay, focus.” Neon got back on track after thinking carefully about what to bring up next. “Aura comes from life-force. People, the planet, also seagulls, probably. Artificial Aura is impossible. So how do you have one?”

Neon already knew the answer. So did Ruby. They knew better than anyone what a machine having an Aura meant, and what it cost. They just wanted Penny to say it herself.

“I don’t know,” Penny said. “How do I have an Aura? I know that I have one, but no Semblance. Semblances cannot be retained during the process.” She paused. “I know there’s a process. Ha! One more fact to add to my memory.”

Neon and Ruby nodded. Good for her.

“I could show you how I activate it if my spine was repaired.”

Ruby put her hand to her chin, her curiosity welling up. "The damage can't be too bad if she can move around this much, and from what I saw inside her, I could reattach her spine if I had the right parts, at least temporarily, and there's no way the market up top wouldn’t have what I need," she mumbled endlessly to herself.

Penny perked up. “You can fix me?”

“Honestly,” Ruby grimaced, “you’re too dangerous to repair right now.”

Penny tilted her head to the side. “Why?”

Ruby folded her arms. “You could kill us both, especially with Aura powers.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because we stole you,” Ruby explained, “from pirates, but we still stole you.”

There was a long pause before Penny frowned dismissively. “Eh.”

“Don’t _eh_ me!” Ruby shouted. “Blake said those pirates got massacred, and we think another one of you Penny Models did it before it got buried in the crash.”

“Probably,” Penny said, her chest puffing up in pride. “I _am_ an advanced prototype.”

“Don’t change the subject.”

Penny jerked her head at the two women as her eyes flashed an emerald light. The cheerful personality left as her mechanical stare scanned them for less than a second, taking in as much visual information as possible with her piercing gaze. “ _Judgement Mode_ ,” Penny said coldly.

Neon and Ruby jumped back, almost into each other’s arms, but as quickly as the bright green light had appeared, it faded, and Penny blinked until she was back to normal.

“Nope,” Penny said, closing her eyes. “No reason to ever kill you.”

Neon and Ruby looked at each other nervously, but also in relief. “What was that?” Neon asked.

“ _Judgement Mode_ ,” Penny said. “All Atlas androids operate on voice commands from their superior officers, but my model is outfitted with a means to judge a situation on her own. When faced with an unexpected-- Oh!”

Neon and Ruby jumped again.

Penny held up her previously limp arm. “I can move my hand again! Anyway, when faced with an unexpected scenario, we can go into _Judgement Mode_ , which uses the entirety of our computing power to assess the situation and make our own decisions. You two: Good.” Penny gave them a thumbs up.

The two flesh-and-blood individuals exchanged some hushed deliberation before Ruby turned back to the android with their compromise. “Here’s the deal,” Ruby said. “We’ll fix you, but not before restraining you first.”

“Understood,” Penny said seriously.

“We’ve got an Aura shock collar if you try anything.”

“Would that make you more comfortable?” Penny asked.

“Yes, I guess it would.”

“Okay!” Penny said, returning to her old cheerfulness. “I can be of help if I’m functioning again. Thank you!”

Ruby and Neon both squirmed, feeling bad about the planned constraints after Penny made a cute face.

Walking over to the workbench, Ruby snagged a piece of paper, wrote down the parts she’d need, and handed it to Neon. “I don’t like going behind Cinder’s back, but she did say Penny was mine.”

“And you're not worried about Blake?” Neon asked. “She’ll be pissed.”

“She’s forgiven me for worse.”

Neon looked over the list. “I’m a pilot, not a mechanic. I’ll probably get the wrong stuff.”

“I did a thorough description.”

“In _your_ handwriting. Come get it with me. When was the last time you left the ship?”

“I can’t leave _her_ here alone.”

“She can come with!” Neon looked at the android, measuring her up. “A hoodie, a pair of sweatpants, some work gloves, and no one would ever tell.”

Penny looked at Ruby. “I was designed to be as realistic as possible.”

“See?” Neon said.

Ruby closed her mouth, not sure about this.

“You need to practice leaving the ship more, Ruby.”

“I…” She wanted to reject the offer and stay put, but then she remembered Blake’s smothering hold earlier. It had made her feel pathetic.

Neon sighed and retreated. “If it’s too much, I’ll--”

“No. I’ll go.” Ruby turned to Penny. “But don’t run off.”

“I need you to fix me. Running off would be silly,” Penny said. “And you’re friends. May I categorize you as friends?”

Neon smiled and put an arm around the android’s shoulders. “Hell yeah! I’ve been stuck on this ship full of introverts for five months, and you’re already a favorite. Welcome to the crew!”

  
  


They left the ship, but not before disguising Penny in one of the few non-red hoodies that Ruby owned but never wore. Ruby herself had the tool belt she always kept on her, especially when she left the ship, her goggles around her neck, and her red hood up and around her head and long dark hair. With Neon leading the way, they kept Penny between them so she couldn't wander off to explore every little thing that caught her interest--learning their lesson from how long it took to get her out of _Paradise_ once she'd been released from the workshop.

The wind on the cliffside had a salty taste mixed in with its biting cold edge, so they quickly made their way to the cable elevator to lift them topside. The top of the cliff was covered by hollowed-out pre-calamity ruins that nested the settlement that used the ancient architecture as a protection from the elements. Penny's wonder reminded Ruby of her own reaction to the settlement, and a smile spread across her face despite herself. They walked down the street as they joined the crowd of humans and Faunus alike on their way to the market.

“Wow!” Penny exclaimed at the old grey skyscrapers above them.

“So, what’s with the emotions?” Ruby asked. Can robots even have feelings, she wondered. And why program a death robot with them even if you could?

“Hmm.” Penny put a hand to her chin. “I don’t have that information.”

“Of course not.”

“Well, what do you know about your programming?” Neon asked.

“I have been installed with several specially cultivated combat styles compatible with my android body. However, I am not functioning enough to use any.”

Neon smirked. “So when we fix you, will you be _fully_ functional?”

Ruby glared at her friend.

“Physically, I’ll be able to satisfy any need you have of me.”

Neon snickered a little.

“But if we’re speaking in innuendos,” Penny added, “I am not currently programmed or equipped for sexual activity.”

Ruby raised an eyebrow. _Wait, currently?_

Shaking her head and sighing, Ruby didn't see she was walking close to another member of the crowd and bumped into him with her shoulder. She turned to apologize, but he didn’t seem to hear and kept on walking, leaving her to rub her arm’s lingering pain.

Neon and Penny continued to talk in front of her. “You were designed to be flexible, right?”

“Of course!” Penny was proud of her many abilities and loved the subtle interrogation. 

Ruby tried to pay attention to their conversation, but couldn’t.

Her walking slowed to a stumble. She was exposed. The crowd's distant eyes aimed at her. The pressure from the immense buildings above held her down in their firm grip. The air, previously not a problem, was too cold to reach her lungs as her dark silver eyes widened, and the world around her swam like she'd been thrust under murky waters.

She rubbed the shoulder that had been bumped moments earlier. It was a completely different scenario, but it reminded her of something…

Of cold metal strapping her arms down, pressing her too tightly to the table under her. Being trapped as wires crawled across her naked skin.

Of the blade shredding through the air, treating her flesh just as inconsequentially as it crushed and severed her femur before burying itself into the ground under her.

_Blake was right._ Ruby’s thoughts were like sharp fingers reaching into her skull and injecting venom into her brain. _She’s always right. Why didn’t I listen to her? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Don’t leave the ship. It’s safe on the ship. Inside the ship. Inside your room. Inside. Inside. Inside where they can’t hurt you. Where you’re not exposed. Exposed. Nothing to protect you. Nothing to save you. Helpless. Alone. Exposed. It’s gone. Give it back. It’s gone. Gone._

“Ruby.”

Ruby looked up. Penny was watching her, staring at her with her bright green eyes. At some point, Ruby hadn’t noticed, she’d wrapped her hands around Ruby’s and clasped them tightly.

“Can you breathe?” Penny said, more as a request than a question.

Ruby looked around at the passing crowd, who hadn’t noticed or cared that something was wrong with her. But the buildings still hovered above them all, ready to collapse at any moment and bury her in concrete, scraping off her exposed flesh now that she had no way to protect herself.

Penny held her gaze. Her innocent absentminded expression was gone and replaced with warm intensity. She put the gloved hand holding Ruby’s up to her own artificial chest and started to breathe.

“Breathe in with me,” Penny said.

Ruby did, shakily, only now realizing how close to hyperventilating she’d gotten.

“And now breathe out,” Penny ordered.

Ruby released the breath with a gasp.

Neon, several paces ahead of them, realized they weren’t following and turned around to see what the hold-up was. “Guys?”

“Your turn,” Penny said, moving their hands to Ruby’s chest so she could feel the air entering and leaving her body. “Breathe in.” Ruby obeyed. “Hold it there, now breathe out. Good. Hold it there. Breathe in again…”

“Oh, no.” Neon’s grin dropped as she rushed over and carefully put her hands on Ruby’s shoulders. “Come on, let’s find somewhere to sit down.”

“I-I’m fine,” Ruby stammered.

“You’re making _that_ face, Ruby.”

“Ah, shit,” Ruby groaned, having hoped it wasn’t that obvious. “Sorry.”

“No apologies allowed. Let’s go.”

They found a small alley and some boxes wrapped in plastic to sit on next to a dark gray wall with ice-moss growing in the cracks. It was out of sight of the street and comfortably claustrophobic. Safe and secure. Ruby was clinging to Neon, who was holding her up as they sat together.

“Sorry, Neon,” Ruby said after several minutes of slowly calming down.

“Hey, it’s always okay,” Neon said kindly. “What happened?”

“It’s stupid.”

“Never stupid either, Ruby.”

“I bumped into a guy.”

“Okay.”

“Apparently, that’s a trigger too. I’m sorry.”

“Do we need to go back to the ship? I pushed you too far, didn’t I?”

“No. I need this. You were right. I just gotta brute force it today.”

“Has anything else been going on?”

Ruby was quiet for a while before she finally admitted the truth. “My leg’s been acting up a lot because of the weather change.” She glared down at it and kicked her metal leg on the ground angrily. “Cheap piece of junk!”

“Hey, you’ve gotten this far.” Neon hugged Ruby tightly. “I’ll never leave you behind. No matter what,” she said like a mantra. “Are you feeling better?”

“I think so.” Ruby nodded, feeling ashamed that something so small brought out an attack. They always came after she thought she was past them, only to repeatedly get proven wrong. “Thanks, Neon. For everything.”

“What else are friends for?” Neon smiled as she rubbed Ruby’s back.

They both looked up. Penny was standing near the entrance to the alley as an awkward third wheel. “I’ll just.. go over there,” she said, smiling nervously.

“No, I’m fine now,” Ruby said. They both helped her to her feet. “I’m fine.”

Penny smiled. “You’re fine.”

“Sorry about all this,” Ruby apologized and then wondered why she felt compelled to. Back on the ship, Ruby's appreciation of Penny was through the lens of a mechanic. Now that Penny was covered in clothes, it was too easy to forget that she was just a robot.

“There’s no need,” Penny said as if she too was aware of her status as a not-real person, "but I appreciate it.”

Eventually, the three left their alley and walked into the market the upper-half of the settlement was built around. The concrete towers were now filled with patchwork huts and tents built from a hodgepodge of different colorful materials. Looking at it, someone could easily believe that every resident had personally built their own homes, like hermit crabs moving into the ancient foundations of the ruined city. The cramped market was packed with Faunus and humans alike, selling anything from electronics and food, to antiques, sometimes even in the same stalls and shops. If you searched around long enough, you could find and buy anything, as long as you had physical lien or something to barter with.

After catching Penny eyeing a clothing shop, Neon pushed them all inside, celebrating Penny’s intuition and the need for her to choose her own style. The interior was practically a garage full of racks of whatever clothes, used or otherwise, the shop owner could get his hands on.

“Hello,” Penny said to the man behind a tall fold-up table that substituted for a counter.

“Hello to you too, young lady,” he said back in a deep voice that half-sung all his words.

“My name’s Penny.”

“And I’m Aristo. Welcome.”

She started asking about the many rings on his fingers and ears before Neon and Ruby had to interrupt after realizing her questions would never end. He directed them over to a row of outfits that would be around the young lady’s size, before happily addressing another potential customer that came in behind them. The racks Penny was pointed to had everything. Dresses, jumpsuits, coats, pretty much any style she could want to choose from were available to her.

“What do you like, Penny?” Neon asked.

Penny cocked her head to the side. “What do you want me to want?”

“Kinky, but I’m asking _you._ ”

The android closely inspected the clothes. Literally. Her nose was an inch away from them.

Ruby leaned over to Neon. “Are you testing her?” she whispered.

Neon nodded. So Ruby wasn’t the only one weirded out by how autonomous it was. If it could make decisions for itself and had a full spectrum of emotions, that meant that Atlas had invented artificial intelligence in one of their many dark secret labs.

The implications of that made Ruby’s brain want to melt.

Penny studied each garment one by one, sometimes asking about the appeal of each outfit and what types of people wore them. Eventually, she stepped back to look at her options. Her eyes flashed like they had earlier on the ship as she stared at the clothes intensely before pointing to her choice: a whitish old fashioned blouse, and a short green and grey overall dress.

“Did you use your _Judgement Mode_ again?” Ruby asked.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“To choose. Presentation is important.”

Ruby folded her arms. “Do you have to use your entire brain to make any decision?”

“The more experience I have, the better I will be at making them,” Penny said. “That or access to a computer network where I can download information that would benefit my assignments.”

Neon nodded along. “How do you download things, though?” she asked. “Do you have a port or a cord somewhere?”

“I have some wireless connection abilities at short ranges. If that doesn’t work--” Penny took off her right work glove, revealing her metallic hand, which split in half as a jagged shaft of metal crackling with green energy shot out like a knife hidden inside her forearm.“--I use force.”

_That would do it!_ Ruby thought. She recognized it as a data-probe, a brute force option for messily stealing information from computers. It could also upload data, but it usually left the probed device crippled or destroyed beyond reasonable repair. Most of them were shaped like spikes or blades, like Penny's, but what it looked like didn't matter much to Neon or Ruby as they quickly hid her arm and had her retract the probe before anyone noticed.

The garage-like shop luckily had a small changing room that Penny used after they found some green leggings and a collar, as well as some gloves and shoes that fit her new look. Ruby was surprised an outfit existed to match the robot’s upbeat and curious nature, and that they happened to find it at their first stop.

“How do I look?” Penny asked as she emerged from the changing room.

“You look amazing!” Neon said.

“Am I cute?” Penny asked like a lot was on the line. “I determined cute would be the best approach.”

“If you were a dude I’d make a move on ya.”

Penny smiled at that. “Thank you!”

_Don’t encourage her,_ Ruby thought.

As they went up to pay the shop’s owner for the dress and other clothes, Penny asked for his opinion. In response, he reached into a nearby drawer, pulled out a pink bow and handed it to her.

“On the house, but don’t go telling people that,” he sang. “We don’t see drops of sunshine like yourself around her often. Most people come here on the way to somewhere else, so they don’t appreciate this place. Keep that beautiful view of the world in your heart, Penny.”

“Thank you, Aristo!” Penny said.

“Come back anytime.”

Penny waved goodbye as they left, eyes beaming as she looked at the bow in her hand, her first-ever gift, and tied it on the back of her head. “He was nice.”

Ruby laughed. “At this rate, you could get Cinder to smile.”

Penny turned to her, very interested. “You think so?”

“I…” Ruby stepped back. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“How did you meet Captain Cinder?” Penny asked.

Ruby thought back to the events leading up to her employment under Cinder, trying to come up with a good place to start. "Around a year ago, I was still recovering, and I met Cinder at the clinic Blake and Neon found for me," Ruby said. "She was getting therapy for her arm from the same PT that was helping me with my leg. We talked a couple times in the waiting room, and I mentioned I was a trained mechanic. I guess we hit it off cause she offered me a job fixing up a ship she bought to start a salvaging business. I really needed a job, so I was lucky to meet her. I got Neon involved to help me test the repairs and modifications I made. They met, one thing led to another, and we both got hired on permanently. After that, Flynt came around looking for work. He's an unlicensed Freelancer, so he has a hard time finding legit work. And Blake's there too to deal with Grimm, which is good because she's my girlfriend, and I'm not good at long-distance."

Things had worked out. Ruby often thought that she either got lucky or maybe the universe took pity on her and decided she needed a break after what happened.

“Do you like it?” Penny asked.

“Keeps me busy. That’s what I need.” Ruby shoved her hands in her jacket pockets.

Penny turned to Neon. “Are you a good pilot?”

“ _I,_ my mechanical friend,” Neon said, putting a hand to her chest, “was the greatest smuggler and underground racer in all Solitas! And I will be again.”

“What happened?” Penny asked in a concerned voice. “Did you crash?”

“Nothing like that. I just lost my Aura,” Neon said dismissively, not knowing that Ruby had earlier told Penny the same thing. Penny made a silent connection, glancing over at Ruby, but said nothing as she turned back to Neon and let her continue her story. "My ability let me stretch my Aura around an entire ship. I flew like it was an extension of my own body, I could even feel every inch of the craft. It's gone now, but I'm not giving up, just watch me. I've climbed that mountain before, the second time is just on hard-mode. I'll catch up to my old self and surpass her!"

“And what about Captain Cinder,” Penny asked. “What’s her story?”

“No one knows,” Neon sighed, putting her hands behind her head. “That lady’s a mystery I wish to unravel someday.”

“Neon doesn’t understand privacy, you see,” Ruby said.

“How can you trust someone if you don’t know them?” Neon said. “She’s got a secret. The fortune she used to buy _Paradise_ and her classy arm was ill-gotten, I’d bet on it. And the only people who come to the east side of Solitas are people running from something. Fact.”

Penny leaned toward her. “It’s a fact?”

Neon nodded.

“I’ll make sure to remember that,” Penny said with determination.

They found their destination, a mechanic’s shed built between the skeletons of an ancient diner and apartment building. It was laid out by someone who shared Ruby’s organizational sensibilities. Which meant Ruby was the only person who thought it was organized. Roughly, junk and ship parts were in the center, and tools and spare parts were along the walls.

The sight and smell of copper and electrical tape. It was beautiful.

Ruby had stopped by there once before, but she usually had Flynt or Blake visit for her instead of leaving her workshop. Despite that, she remembered the place well enough to know where they kept the parts she needed to fix Penny’s back.

“Brings up memories,” Ruby said to Penny. “When I was a kid, my big sister would take me to the local metal shop and we’d get parts to build weapons. Well, our sad excuses for weapons.”

Neon frowned. “Excuses?”

“Well, yeah. You think the things we built could hit a buck at ten meters, let alone hurt a Grimm. We were kids just messing around.”

“No, I’ve seen the pictures, those were weapons,” Neon said. “Normal eight-year-olds don’t know how to build guns, Ruby. You and your sister are freaks.”

“Eight-year-olds on Patch know.”

“What’s a Patch?” Penny asked.

“A Grimm infested island that has a settlement on it because the people who live there are _crazy!_ ”

While ignoring her ridiculous comments (only half of it was infested), Ruby found what they needed. They bought the temporary replacement for Penny’s snapped vertebra from a Faunus shopwoman with raccoon ears, who was also charmed by Penny’s antics. Neon and Ruby had to drag the android away from an extended conversation about the woman’s niece who helped her run the shop. Once again, Penny waved goodbye as they left.

“Thank you, Ruby,” Penny said once they left, holding the sack full of parts. “You just met me, but you’ve helped me so much.”

Ruby smiled awkwardly. “What are friends for,” she parroted. She wasn’t one to make friends quickly, but Neon was hellbent to get along with her… or should she be called an it? Ruby wasn’t sure what the rules for robot pronouns were.

Penny looked up at Ruby and gasped with a sudden realization.

“What is it?”

“It’s just like what you told me! With you and your big sister.”

“I guess?”

“So you’re like, _my_ big sister!”

Ruby stared at her and stopped dead in her tracks. Soon, tears welled in her eyes, dripping down her blushing cheeks. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me…”

Penny smiled back and clutched the bag to her chest before skipping ahead.

“Is this what Yang feels like all the time?” Ruby mumbled to herself.

“Focus, girl,” Neon said, pushing her forward.

“Is _this_ protective instinct?”

Penny froze mid-skip and jerked her head at the sky, causing Ruby and Neon to bump into her, breaking Ruby out of the crisis caused by her newfound purpose in life.

“What’s up, Penny?” Neon asked.

Penny quickly grabbed them both and pulled them between some of the stalls to hide against a wall.

“Hey! What’s the--?” Ruby cried, but Penny put a hand to her mouth.

“They’re here,” Penny said.

Before Ruby or Neon could say another word, an airship flew right over the settlement’s market, then another following right after it. Everyone who looked up recognized them instantly: Two small Atlas Military transports.

Atlas never stretched its military out here. Not unless they had a reason. And that reason was probably a certain modified ship and the cargo it was holding, all of which were still parked down at the vertical shipyard below.

_Oh no,_ Ruby thought, the main cause of her concern still down there, not far away from Atlas’s target. _Blake!_

* * *

Released over a hundred years before the calamity, _Always One More Dance_ was a relic of a lost age. It was one of the rarest surviving albums from its era. Its cover was arguably what a picture representing classical ancient jazz should be in an encyclopedia. Assuming the encyclopedia wasn't written by an imbecile. And it was right in front of Cinder, in a scrap shop.

Cinder was almost bewildered. Sitting in a plastic box, next to a burned sheet of metal and a tangle of stripped wires, tossed aside by salvagers who didn't know its worth, was an unattainable target that a collector like herself could only fantasize about finding. At a glance, it was even in fine condition.

She reached out with her cybernetic arm but switched to her organic hand just in case before plucking it out of danger. Pulling the vinyl from its sleeve, she saw that it was somehow perfectly preserved. Cinder looked around. No one was lining up to compete with her, so she decided to hold onto it for safekeeping.

Lime and Ma’s Scrap Shop was a decent enough place to sell salvage to, at least for a newcomer to the business like Cinder and her crew. But Lime treated his vultures fairly and gave them good info, as long as he got first seller rights at least. That didn’t make the place any less of a dump, though. In its defense, relative to the rest of the settlement, it wasn't a cluttered hovel full of hoarders that clung onto whatever rusty shit they could get their grubby hands on. Relatively. But if a rare gem like the vinyl Cinder had in her hands could be found in this frozen trash pile, then she couldn't completely condemn Hailstone Outpost's existence.

“Hey!” Flynt called out over the sound of a chop saw. “Is Lime here?”

Lime’s mother, the titular _Ma_ in the shop’s name, looked up from the car she was dismantling. She was a huge woman, almost six and a half feet tall naturally, and her work boots made her cross that threshold with ease. She silently raised a beefy arm, pointed to the office where her son conducted his business, and with a deadpan expression went back to work.

Flynt waved her a thank you and turned to the office with the rest of the group. They'd finally finished refueling Paradise and gathering extra supplies before they’d headed down to the shop for a, hopefully, peaceful business negotiation. If things went well, they'd move their ship down the docks a level and secretly unload the cargo once it was dark.

Cinder stepped forward. The office was barely larger than a cubical, built out of cheap plastic next to the stone wall of the artificial cavern. It had a window with the blinds drawn, and Cinder knocked on the shaky glass with a metal claw.

The blinds shot up as Lime, a man sitting in a chair tall enough to look Cinder eye-to-eye, appeared. Just like his mother, he had a frog-like face that matched his green hair. He cracked the window in front of his desk and said something inaudible.

“What?” Cinder asked, squinting to try to overcome the shredding metal behind her.

Lime rolled his eyes and leaned forward to see his mother working deeper inside the cavern. “ _Ma!_ ” he yelled. When she didn't hear him, he grumbled and hopped down out of his tall chair. All but the top of his head disappeared as he walked two steps over, opening a door that let him out into the rest of the shop. “Ma! Quiet it down! Our colleagues are here!”

Ma glanced up, and without a change of expression, put down the saw to work on something else with a wrench.

Lime looked up at Cinder, a whole foot taller than him, and slicked back his hair. He was at a height where he was close enough to claim he was five feet tall, but not quite enough that anyone would believe him. “I didn’t think you’d be back so soon. Did you find the ship?”

Cinder nodded, crossing her arm, making sure her mechanical one was clearly visible just under his nose.

Behind her, Flynt and Blake were looking at other salvage from pre-calamity ruins and crashed ships that other crews had brought in. They were having their own conversation that Cinder was half aware of while she confronted their business partner.

Flynt held up a book for Blake to look at it over his shoulder.

“I’ve read it,” Blake said.

He tossed it away. “This one?” he asked, holding up a different paperback.

“Maybe,” she took it but tossed it back into the pile when she saw water damage had ruined the last half of the novel.

“This one?”

“Nope. Hate that author.”

As they perused, Lime happily rubbed his hands together at the news they’d brought back a shipload of new salvage. “Excellent. You can bring the cargo right in here.”

Cinder nodded. “Just one problem.”

“Uh-huh?”

“Lime,” Cinder said, putting on an irritated smile, “did you know they were hauling stolen Atlas cargo.”

Lime’s eyes widened.

“Atlas… Military… cargo, Lime?”

He took in the new information, processed it, stepped back into his office, and moved to close himself in with the thin door.

“Oh no, you don’t.” Cinder grabbed the door and held it open. “First sellers rights, remember?

“I don’t want it anymore!”

“We had a deal. Either take the stuff or point me to someone who will. You got me into this mess, and you’re going to help me get out of it.”

Flynt held up another book for Blake. “How about this?”

“That’s clearly porn.”

Flynt did a double-take at the cover. “ _Samurai Passion_ , huh?”

“Let me see that.” Blake plucked it out of his hand and flipped through it, pausing on a descriptive paragraph. “You didn’t see anything,” she said after she tucked it under her arm.”

Lime’s lip quivered, but he finally gave in. “Okay, let me think.” He tapped his finger against his cheek for a while. “I have some White Fang contacts down in Anima I could peddle it to. They had Dust, right?”

“Yeah, some armor too.”

“I don’t like this, Cinder.”

“Neither do I, but I need money, and the White Fang pays well. So you’ll get a profit no matter what.”

Lime sighed but nodded. “Fine.”

He held up his hand to solidify the deal, when…

A footstep. Then another. Then a polite knock on the large metal doorframe of the caverns loading door that led outside to the airship landing pad.

Even Ma in the back turned as everyone looked at the new visitor. He was a tall man wearing a white and blue trench coat and a peaked cap over his slicked-back blonde hair. The appearance of an Atlas officer.

He nodded a polite greeting before crossing the threshold of the shop. “Hello!” he called while wearing a toothy grin, his boisterous voice echoing through the cavern and out into the dock behind him. “I was wondering if any of you could point me toward the owners of the large ship outside.”

The officer turned his neck and looked behind him. His stare went up the side of the cliff, directly at the underside of _Paradise._


	3. Chapter 3

In a different situation, Cinder could have mistaken the wide grin on the Atlesian officer’s face as a friendly gesture, or at least an attempt at one. But turning back to the small group trapped inside Lime and Ma’s shop, his figure felt more imposing to her escape than the rock walls she was buried between.

“My pilot informed me it’s a modified _Whale_ -class transport,” the officer said as if ready to belt out to an auditorium.

Orca _-class cargo transport_ , Cinder thought. Hopefully, the path to freedom was paved by his idiocy.

Lime stepped forward, rubbing his chin below a casual, unfazed, face; a bead of sweat on the side facing away from the officer. “Don’t think I recognize it. Maybe some newcomers?”

“Really?” The officer rubbed the back of his head, almost embarrassed. “I was hoping they were regulars so someone could point them out for me. Oh, dear.”

Cinder kept quiet and focused on the Hunter-class weapon under his coat: A large shotgun hanging on his belt like a cutlass. With a second glance, it was actually a cutlass too. Why choose between ranged or melee weapons when you could have both? Cinder couldn't decide if the trend originated from greed or indecisiveness.

Lime put on his best apologetic face, which covered for his anxiety. “Sorry, I can’t be much help, sir.”

“Oh please,” the officer smiled and shook Lime’s hand, “Operative Cerulean, at your service.”

_Shit. Shit. Shit!_ Cinder thought behind a blank stare. When she saw the transforming gun, she feared one of Atlas’s Specialist dogs. Aura-trained and loyal to their masters. She had her prosthetic to fight back, but she couldn’t do any damage unless she got up close, and that’ll be tricky if he powered up.

Cinder side-eyed her companions. Both were doing a good job keeping their cool once the Specialist surprised them. She’d never seen Flynt in a fight, so she wasn’t planning to depend on him, but Blake had brought her katana, another Hunter-class weapon. However, Cinder wasn't willing to bet her survival on a one-on-one fight between two Semblance-users. Way too messy.

“Are they smugglers?” Lime asked, fishing for what his partners in crime by association were in trouble for.

“We suspected salvagers, which is why I came to you.”

“Makes sense,” Lime said with feigned pride. “Our associates strictly work on our side of the border, by the way."

The Specialist gave a deep laugh. “Of course!” he said and patted the shorter man on the shoulder.

Flynt slowly made his way over to Cinder’s side. Now that he was closer, his nervousness toward the Atlas officer was showing. As a fellow Atlesian, he knew the danger, but probably had no experience confronting them. It wasn’t a tolerance sought out, but one wrong move could lead to checkmate. _Just keep quiet and let me and Lime do the talking,_ she thought, hoping her expression would get the point across. 

“They could be shipping stuff topside if you can’t find them down here,” Lime said, helpfully. “I sell to the market up there all the time. More profitable than doing it out of the shop, you see.”

“I will probably join my forces up there then.” The Specialist nodded, more to himself than Lime, like he was planning the rest of his afternoon. “After all, the ship was left abandoned when we searched it minutes ago.”

Blake’s apathetic facade broke for a moment. A short gasp of relief, but also confusion.

_Empty?_ Cinder thought. Did Ruby and Neon somehow know they were coming? They weren't a smuggling ship, so there weren't any secret panels to hide in on-board. Even if they did, Cinder doubted it would do anything against the Aura-enhanced senses of a Specialist on the hunt.

The Specialist finally turned his smile toward Cinder and her two crewmembers. “How about you fine people? You wouldn't happen to recognize the ship, would you?”

Cinder glanced up at _Paradise_ with a frown. “Not really,” she finally said, crossing her arms. “Lots of ships pass through, though. It’s hard to remember all of them.”

“Ah, I see. Do you work here?”

“We work in a garage a couple levels down. Lime, here, has a part we need for a racer we’re trying to get up and running. Hoping to sell it to a pilot by summer. You fly?”

“Not me, no.” He waved off the false offer and straightened his coat. “If you have any information at all. Please find me, or one of my AKs. I stand out, so it shouldn’t be hard.” He laughed again like it was his version of “goodbye,” and turned away.

“You sure they’re the ones you’re after?” Flynt called after him.

_Damn it to hell! He was leaving, Flynt!_ Cinder shot a glare in his direction.

“Pretty sure,” the Specialist called back, a darker edge in his voice, like a disappointed parent scolding a child for lying to them. “We found the prototype’s container in your cargo bay after all.”

Only the chilling salt-coated wind could be heard crossing the platform between them.

The Specialist turned back. “The one we questioned, the citizen who directed me here, was good enough to share a description of your ship’s captain.” He stared at Cinder. “She has a memorable appearance.”

His friendliness wasn’t stupidity, Cinder realized; it was confidence. She glanced around at her options like a cornered animal. Blake’s expression had remained practically unchanged. Flynt had gone pale, recognizing how truly and utterly fucked they were.

“I was hoping you’d confess willingly,” Operative Cerulean called out, “but I understand lying out of fear. Atlas isn’t without compassion.”

Cinder grit her teeth. He had her, for now. The situation hadn’t changed for the better or worse yet. Not technically. The only thing that had changed was all his pieces were on the table. Unfortunately, the Specialist had set the board, the ultimate advantage. But she still had Blake to stall him in a worst-case scenario. She wasn’t close enough to close the shop’s doors, not that they’d close fast enough to stop him from killing them all first. Perhaps there was a ventilation shaft or utility tunnel in the back of the cave she could escape through?

The Specialist glanced between the three salvagers. “This can’t be your whole crew. I imagine they’re hiding in the crowded streets above. If they are, then my AKs will bring them to me. Shouldn't be too difficult, they have my country's property tagging along somehow, after all.”

_They brought that thing with them?_ Cinder thought. _Those two are begging Atlas to kill us._

“What do you want?” Blake asked flatly.

“One of the two prototypes survived the pirate’s theft and crash. You found it; we want it back. I would put in a good word with my superior if your crew cooperates in returning it. Atlas is nothing but generous.”

Blake scoffed, showing off her sharp teeth. “Atlas isn’t generous.”

“Atlas is _all-generous!_ ” The Specialist spread his arms out like he was at the front of a stage. "They took desperate settlements abandoned by Mantle during the war and unified them under their order to save them from Grimm. Humanity in Solitas would have gone extinct if it weren't for Atlas's intervention. Shame the ones out here in the east reject that stability." He shook his head, it was a tragedy only appropriate to speak softly about.

“Is this guy for real?” Flynt asked.

“They usually send the zealots to the settlements,” Cinder said. “Smart ones know to stay home and rise through the ranks.” She glanced behind her. Lime had retreated from the platform and had his back against the plastic wall of his office. Ma had stopped working on the remains of the car, but not even her imposing figure could stand up against an Aura-user.

“I was plucked from the grasp of the Grimm as a boy!” the Specialist continued. “And I’ve dedicated my short life to their cause from that moment on. Atlas is the paragon of humanity’s achievements in the age after The Calamity. Their way is the path to reclaim our rightful place as--”

A second Blake appeared behind him mid-soliloquy. Her image next to Cinder vanished like inky mist disappearing in sunlight. The Faunus had simultaneously activated her Aura and Semblance, _Midnight Mirage_ , sneaking up behind the Specialist. Her katana was unsheathed, its deadly edge with her full Aura-enhanced strength behind it swung horizontally for his neck.

The Specialist’s eyes went wide. His upper body shot back, one arm reaching behind him to keep him from collapsing, the decapitating strike only knocking off his hat. Aura activated before her follow-up strike, blue energy detonating as he parried her attack with his cutlass and used the brief clash to get back on his feet in an instant.

A breath passed between them.

His weapon fired a slug into the Faunus's stomach. Her shadow dispersed, revealing the real Blake sliding to a stop elsewhere on the landing pad.

“Damn it!” Blake stood up and held out her sword defensively.

_Time for things to get messy,_ Cinder thought, disappointed.

“Blake!” Flynt ran forward to help. The Fool. Luckily, his feet didn’t need to move to rush in. Two Splits appeared out of him that sprinted forward to tackle the Specialist from behind.

Operative Cerulean glanced behind him. With a blink of an eye, two glowing orbs made out of sapphire light appeared, floating above his shoulders, spinning rapidly in place before they shot out at both Flynts. They tore through the Aura covering the clones, nearly shattering them both in one strike.

Cinder grabbed the first Flynt, still by her, and rolled them back behind a desk as the Aura balls shredded the front of the shop. They ricocheted around the cavern entrance, bouncing off walls and scrap metal, building up speed and momentum as they shot back at both Splits, ripping into them over and over again until both fell and shattered on the concrete ground like glass figurines.

The two orbs swung back to their owner once the clones were dispatched, returning to floating around the Specialist's shoulders. “Two Semblance-users under your payroll? Impressive for scavengers,” he called back to Cinder who was peaking around her cover, but kept his eyes on Blake. “Fellow conjurer-types, I see. Maybe a cross with a psychic-type for you, Faunus. That was a perception attractor in your shadow if I’m not mistaken.”

Blake pointed her katana’s tip at him.

“I did want to avoid violence,” the Specialist said. “It would have been better if we all cooperated for the glory of Atlas.”

In Blake's eyes, Cinder could see the darkness of someone who had seen Atlas imprison her fellow Faunus. Kill and scar her friends, companions, her lover... Cold eyes with the burning ember of hate underneath, ready to ignite and consume her enemy.

Cerulean sighed, recognizing there was no negotiation to be had. There was only judgment. He aimed his weapon at the Faunus as the sapphire spheres began spinning in place like they were trapped between two magnetic forces. His Semblance built energy within itself before turning toward her Aura-covered figure standing across the platform, and launched--

* * *

“They’ve got Knights,” Ruby whispered.

“Well, shit,” Neon groaned back. “Wait, which model?”

“Oh, just the old 200-model-- Of course it’s the new ones!”

Using the crowd to hide, Ruby, Neon, and Penny were keeping an eye on the two Atlas-made combat robots that had marched into the market to interrogate the settlers. Atlesian Knights were tall, imposing metallic soldiers, and unlike Penny, they were completely inhuman. Emotionless metal mannequins with the sole purpose of enforcing Atlas law or killing their enemies.

“The crew of a modified _Orca_ -class transport,” a mechanical voice screeched at citizens, “they are with a target disguised as a young human woman with orange hair and pale skin.”

Ruby had some run-ins with AKs several years back, but the modern 600-models weren't the pushovers they used to be. These could give her trouble back when she had her Aura, so neither she nor Neon stood a chance in their condition.

“We need to get back to _Paradise,_ ” Neon said.

“They would have secured the ship first,” Penny whispered.

“Do you have, like, any tracking devices on you? How’d they find us so fast?”

“Negative. My model is too secret to have a traceable signal to its location.”

We double-checked all the cargo when we salvaged it,” Ruby said. “No trackers.”

“So it's just bad luck? Great… What’s the plan?”

“We gotta find Blake and the others,” Ruby said.

“If the death bots haven’t got to them first,” Neon murmured but nodded.

The crowd wasn't thick enough for Ruby's comfort. Atlas was here. Hiding with Neon and Blake hadn't accomplished anything but delay the inevitable. Her anxiety reached through her back and gripped her stomach, crippling her breathing again. She felt like she could puke at any moment and give away their position.

One of the AKs turned toward her. Ruby followed its gaze to Penny peaking through the crowd.

Ruby shoved Penny’s shoulder. “Down!” she shouted through clenched teeth, but it was too late.

The AK turned to its partner, communicating that it’d spotted the target in a garbled and compressed digital speech before shoving a civilian to the side to march through the crowd.

“Gogogo!” Neon grabbed at Ruby and Penny’s arms and started running.

The two women and the android dodged through the curious and cowering bystanders that faced the oncoming Atlas robots. Through side streets and around stalls, Neon led them ducking and weaving through the market, sparing the occasional glance over her shoulder, only to see the AKs always barely in sight. Hunting them down for, _at best,_ questioning, but Ruby knew better than to hope for the best.

What Ruby didn’t know, was to look down at her feet right at that moment. Her prosthetic slipped out from under her, the result of stepping on the edge of a loose stone in the middle of the street. She stumbled but kept pace with the other two, but the earlier sizzling pain returned in full force. The illusion of a real limb shattered, only a red hot alien lump latched onto her leg.

_Not now! Please!_

Before Ruby’s leg could drag her down, Penny suddenly dropped, her left side going limp. “Oh dear,” she said, barely getting caught by Neon and Ruby. “My motor functions have failed me again.”

“Come on, we gotta go!!” Ruby gasped in pain. They dragged the surprisingly light android behind a stall next to a crowded street of curious eyes.

“I will regain my ability to walk in fifteen seconds,” Penny reported.

“We don’t have that…” Ruby clawed at her leg. They were out of options, and the AKs were getting closer.

The heavy stomps of the robot's trampling gravel as they single-mindedly pursued them shrieked in her ears. Ruby glanced up. The crowd was staring at her in the hiding place, looking back and forth between them and the approaching AKs.

_This is it,_ Ruby thought. She hugged her legs to her chest with one hand and gripped Penny’s arm with the other. After all her fighting and hiding, this is how it ends.

“Gentlemen!”

The two robots were a glance away from discovering them when they turned to the sing-song voice addressing them.

“Aristo?” Penny whispered.

One of the AKs approached him, glaring down at the shop owner Penny had befriended less than an hour ago. “Have you located our target disguised as--”

“Yes, yes, I heard you shouting all over the street for her. Anyway, the girl came into my stall a few hours ago. Her companions said something about heading toward the government center while they were in there.” He faced the two robots who had turned their backs to Penny’s hiding place, but he stared through them. “Run,” his eyes seemed to tell Penny, conveniently just as the fifteen-second mark passed.

Before Ruby could move, a hand reached out and grabbed her forearm, pulling her up and tugging at the three of them to follow behind the stand. It came from a young Faunus with raccoon ears and heavy eyeshadow, probably no older than fourteen. “Come on!” she whispered, staying crouched as she started dragging them through a crack between two ancient buildings.

The crowd independently filled in the space between the AKs and the Faunus’s escape route, blocking the view just before one of the AKs turned to look.

“This one is distracting us,” the AK garbled to its partner before cracking its Dust rifle across Aristo’s nose. He collapsed down in pain as the AKs stomped off to resume their search.

Penny briefly turned back at the violent sound and a collective gasp from the witnesses. Her face was pained, but she didn’t stop running with the group as they ducked into the settlement’s back alleys.

After going around several corners, the raccoon girl was sure they weren’t being followed and came to a stop.

“Thanks for the assist, kid,” Neon said.

The girl frowned at that comment but kept the reason to herself.

“Who are you?” Ruby asked.

“My aunt sent me. Said three girls needed help getting away from Atlas. Good thing I found you when I did.”

Recognition filled Ruby’s eyes. Not just the raccoon trait, but the familiar resemblance as well. “The mechanic shop! You’re her niece,” she said, remembering the drawn-out conversation between Penny and the owner they had to drag her away from. _Guess it wasn’t a waste of time after all._

The raccoon girl pointed down another alley. “That way to the docks. Good luck.” She glanced around and vertically jumped into the air above their heads, gripping her hands on a retracted ladder before scampering across a metal fire escape, disappearing into one of the building’s windows above.

“She’s nice,” Penny said.

“I guess an enemy of Atlas is a friend around here,” Neon shrugged. “Pretty common in independent settlements.”

“More like we have Penny here to thank,” Ruby rubbed Penny’s head affectionately. _If we get out of this, I owe her big time._

The shell-like towers were compacted over the shadowy corners of the settlement. Their cover created a dark twilight despite the sun still above the horizon in the outside world. Perfect for hiding as long as Atlas overlooked the place.

Unfortunately, they hadn’t.

Neon barely pulled her companions to the side as two more AKs rounded a corner up ahead, searching through the frost-covered trash piles and half battered down doors for their targets.

With only moments before they would be noticed, the group sprinted to the closest door. A rusted padlock sealed the building, halting their progress. Penny reached for it, mumbling to herself something along the lines of, “Please work,” and shattered the old lock in her mechanical hand.

Rushing inside, Ruby quietly closed the door behind them. Nothing was around to barricade it with, so they ran further into the old building. It had been abandoned twice, or even thrice, over. From the looks of it, originally, it was an open office space, but the city came to ruins before much furniture was moved in. At the end of a wide-open room with two rows of pillars on either side, were a few desks. One was overturned by a previous intruder, and the runaways hid behind it, out of sight from the barred up windows surrounding them.

Just outside, Ruby could hear the garbled voice of an AK. “Received transmission from B-2 team,” it reported to its partner. “Targets spotted along our search path. Nearby units will coordinate to sweep this sector.”

Neon laughed nervously. “We kinda stumbled into another pickle. Right, Ruby?”

Ruby nodded, but they didn't have time to worry about that right now. Despite it all, she had to do what she always did in these situations: Find a way out. 

Sure, she couldn't fight, she couldn't run, she couldn't even protect anyone. Every part of her identity had been robbed from her, but Ruby was still here despite that. She was still breathing, if not shakily. As long as she had that, she could push her fear away. She only had to focus on the path to freedom, and it was sitting right next to her.

Ruby pulled the bag of parts close and turned to Penny. “Strip.”

"You can fix her here?" Neon asked.

“We’ll find out.”

“That a girl!” Neon said, but a bead of sweat dripped down her tattooed temple as she kept an ear out for mechanical footsteps outside.

Penny obediently pulled off her dress and unbuttoned her blouse, letting both fall to the dusty floor, left only wearing her leggings and bow. “Turn the bolt under my right arm counterclockwise to open my backplates, the damage should be accessible from there.”

Ruby adjusted her tool belt and jammed a thin metal screwdriver under Penny's raised arm. Armor panels imitating the musculature of an upper-back popped out, rotating up to the sides horizontal with her shoulders, appearing as two small wings. Underneath was Penny’s robotic spine, several vertebrae damaged, but functional, with one up by her neck that was the source of the android’s malfunctions.

“Okay,” Ruby said as she put on her goggles. “Let’s do this.”

Over the next few minutes, Ruby delicately removed the destroyed section of the artificial spine, trying to break the process down into simple steps:

Pry out the locked-in section.

Clip the burnt connecting wires and metal.

Pay careful attention to the structure of the surrounding pieces so--despite the advanced design--she could figure out how to make their rough replacement run properly.

Ruby just had to pretend she was back at school with a piece of equipment way above her level. She'd done timed assignments before; this was no different. Bad grade; death by Dust rifle. Same thing.

The sound of the back door shattering further inside the building echoed between the pillars in the large room they hid in.

Neon peered around the edge of the desk. "They're here." She pulled out a concealed pistol from the inside of her jean jacket and checked her ammo. Twelve shots--enough to stall one for a few seconds. The magazine slid into the bottom of her weapon. "Better hurry up."

Ruby exhaled carefully. She could hear them now. Two walking toward their position, and two more moving up a shaky staircase to check out the floors above.

She almost lost control of her breath again.

“You’ve got this, Ruby,” Neon said to assure her, but also herself.

“I’ve got this,” Ruby whispered back.

Penny stayed motionless, unaffected by their impending doom. “Insert the replacement before repairing the wiring with the new cable. I can run for a day or two like this, but I'll need more sophisticated maintenance if I am to continue further.”

Like an awkward puzzle piece that only fit if she looked at it from the correct angle, Ruby jammed the new vertebra up near her neck. Thankfully, Penny’s advice back in the shop of what exact parts to get were on point. The next step was soldering the new wires with the old, occasionally sizzling and popping from her working too fast. It was clumsy and louder than she wanted, but she had no choice.

“Identify!” A digital voice echoed across the room, followed by the sound of rifles raising and training at the sound of Ruby’s repairs from behind the desk. Immediately, the footsteps Ruby was trying to block out got louder.

Neon flicked off the safety switch. Her irises narrowed. The long tail behind her crouching form tensed. She waited, ready to pounce.

Ruby couldn't afford any distraction. Just work. Worrying wouldn't change the work, so just do it, she told herself. Work was what she was best at these days. _So just lose yourself in it,_ Ruby thought, _and ignore everything else around you._ She’d been able to bear with the last year like this, so she could get through the next few seconds.

The two AK robots ground dirt and dust under their metal feet. Rhythmic steps that followed faint footprints picked up by their laser scanning vision, leading them to the turned over desk. Cautious but diligent, just like they were programmed to while acting alone.

In a tranquil state (achieved through willpower or adrenaline, Ruby didn't know), Ruby finished attaching the wires and connecting the replacement vertebrae into the android's back. She kept calm by pretending it was as simple as repairing a valve in an engine, or the gears in her old gun-scythe, _Crescent Rose._

Even sooner than Ruby expected, one of the AKs whipped around the side of their cover, aiming its Dust rifle at Ruby hunched over the android’s form.

“Identi--”

Before it could finish its command, Neon jumped up from her hiding place, pressed her pistol against the machine's visor, and shot out its left ocular sensor. Lens shattered; wires shredded and sparked as half its sight went off-line. The AK staggered back from the blast, but its gun rose. It still had one equivalent of an eye left and quickly compensated, dodging a second shot. Her ambush bought her less than three seconds. The AK’s barrel aimed at Neon, who had no Aura to defend herself or escape execution--

\--just as Ruby cranked a gear on Penny’s shoulder, locking in the replaced vertebrae.

Green fluorescent light spread between the lines in Penny’s armor. They all flowed from her chest, where a white glow had appeared, visible even from behind.

Penny shot out under Ruby, spinning across the floor until she was right under the AK training its weapon at Neon. She punched an arm up above her head, colliding her palm under its chin just before it fired.

A burst of a dozen Dust bullets filled the ceiling in less than two seconds as the AK stumbled back. It’s remaining eye focused on the new threat rising to her feet.

Penny stood up straight, legs wide, and fists clenched. Her wings folded down into her back before an explosion of white energy burst around her body, covering her head to toe. As a declaration of her summoned Aura, Penny's cheerful voice rang out:

“Combat ready!”

“Target acquired,” the two AKs garbled.

A jump kick to the first AKs head put her out of the way of the path of the other’s bullets. Dodging and weaving, Penny flared her Aura powers, grabbed the arm wielding the weapon, and ripped it off. It clattered to the ground helplessly as the AK used its remaining hand to punch at her. But Penny dodged, barely, and kicked at its knees to bring it down.

The other robot was on her, its free arm extended a long blade and it swung. Penny left the fallen one and slid under the new attacker, somersault leaped back onto her feet which kicked off the ground and up into the air where she grabbed its head. Using her momentum, she spun herself around the AK midair. A burst of Aura energy launched her down over it, causing her to lift the robot's body midair and cartwheel slam it into its partner below her.

From her hiding place, Ruby was pretty sure Penny had finished them both off in one move, but just to be sure, Penny kicked up one of the AKs dropped machine rifles. Her hand opened up, split in half down the middle to interface with the weapon designed to be only fired by AKs. Locking it into her wrist and forearm, she turned it against the pile of twitching automatons and fired. Four full seconds of Dust ammunition burying through the AKs passed until their armor gave and left bare the soon destroyed circuitry and machinery underneath. When the firing stopped, the two machines Ruby saw as a death sentence were a smoking heap of dead metal.

“Wow,” Neon said, peeking up alongside Ruby, but still mostly safe behind the laminate desk.

Without acknowledging them, Penny jerked her head up, just as the two other AKs burst down from the ceiling. Concrete and rotted carpet scattered under them, lasers streaming from their eyes to scan through the dust and darkness for the source of their comrades’ loud demise.

Penny was running by the time they fired. A spray of bullets trailed right behind her as she spun behind one of the pillars, grabbing up the machine gun from the other fallen AK with her as she did. Ruby and Neon flinched and smartly cowered behind the desk as the fight picked back up again. But not before seeing Penny's other hand splitting in half, the new machine gun bonding into her forearm that interfaced with the weapon, getting behind cover while dual-wielding rifles.

The pillar was almost shredded through by the time the two AKs stopped firing. They both reloaded as one stayed to cover the area, while the other moved forward to flank Penny. It was surprisingly light on its feet as it crept across the shell-covered floor, littered by the rubble from the ceiling and what had been shot off the support beam.

It jerked around the pillar, but not fast enough against Penny, who launched out at it, shoving one of her machine gun’s tips up against its jaw between the armor.

Blapblapblap! Shredding through the top of its neck, Penny pushed against it with her Aura and cybernetically enhanced strength. She overpowered the larger machine and positioned it between her and the last untouched enemy. Penny reached her other arm around and opened fire at the other AK, the robot at her mercy covering her from the exchange.

Her last target’s armor took most of the hits. Denting and ricocheting off. It was built to withstand attacks, even from Aura-users, so it could stand dozens of bullets more than Penny’s own frame. But her maneuverability combined with the Aura-power residing in her meant it was outclassed in every other way.

The covering fire gave Penny enough time to finish severing the closer robot’s neck with bullets. As its head limped to the side, a spray of firework sparks erupted out of its neck. Penny dropped her raised gun, allowing her arm to fold back into a recognizable hand and grab the now limp body, heaving it up to wield it as a shield that soaked the oncoming fire as she rushed forward.

Even with her bullet bouncing off it, the robot was still standing in place to avoid being knocked off balance. It lasted long enough for Penny's magazine to run dry. She'd planned for this, however. An Aura-user could never rely on mere bullets to finish the job.

As soon as Penny ran out of ammunition, she pulsed white-hot Aura into her arms and feet. She dropped her second gun, and a newly formed hand joined the other gripping the collar of her AK shield as she spun. The centrifugal force and her Aura strength pulled the weighty figure in a full circle in a flash before she released the robot like a hammer-throw.

It flew like she’d put all her enormous strength into it, its bulk spinning through the air as if she’d pitched it at the robot threatening her friends.

The other AK only just leaped to the side in time with a burst of its own speed. Its dodged partner crashed against a pillar, spun off, and through a nearby wall.

But the functioning robot’s dodge had left it open again. Penny kicked off the ground, a shockwave of Aura catapulting her forward, already inside its arm’s reach before it could raise its weapon and shred through her shielding. Jumping up, Penny landed her smaller body on its chest, both her hands on the robot’s face in a death grip.

The final AK squirmed in her hold as Penny’s metal fingers pierced through its visor and into its ocular sensors, burying themselves into its skull-shaped head. Shattered lenses and shredding metal sang out to the echoing room.

As soon as Penny buried deep enough inside the automaton, she ripped her hands and arms outward.

It’s head split in half like a messy melon. Sparks and hydraulic fluid shot out and showered the floor under its still standing form.

The motors of the struggling AK failed, and it fell backward limply with the smaller robot crouched on its chest, standing as they hit the ground. Penny gently swung her arms forward and tossed the two halves of the robot’s head aside before she dusted off her hands.

Neon and Ruby were watching, their self-preservation not enough to win out against their curiosity. This came at the cost of their jaws dropping, only held up by the top edge of the desk they were peaking over.

Penny turned to them with her cheerful smile, holding up two fingers in a v-shape. “Mission accomplished!”

“Y-Yeah…” Neon and Ruby carefully got up. Penny actually did it. She’d saved them. But more importantly, she had an Aura. And she knew how to use it too.

Penny hopped off the robot’s corpse, her Aura retreating back inside her before she rushed up and tightly wrapped her arms around Ruby.

“Oh! Okay… Hi.” Ruby flinched but hugged the half-naked android back.

“You did it!” Penny shouted, pulling away and smiling up at Ruby. “I will need proper repairs as soon as possible, but you did it!”

“ _You’re_ the one who did all the hard work,” Ruby protested, her blush hiding behind her long hair.

“I can’t fix myself, silly.” Penny hugged her again, lifting Ruby up in the air this time.

“Okay! Okay! I give. You’re welcome.” Ruby tried to find the password that would end the affection, but a smile spread on her face despite herself. Repairing a strange android under life or death pressure in about seven and a half minutes. Maybe she hadn’t lost her touch after all.

Ruby caught sight of Neon staring. She put her gun away, a proud smile on her face as she stretched and yawned, forcing the tension of the episode out of her body and returned to her old carefree self.

Penny shortly put back on her dress, blouse and gloves, once again disguised as a mortal. From now on, she could fight without drawing triple-takes from anyone who caught a glimpse (The second glance for the topless girl, and the last for her being a robot).

“Okay, how do we get back to _Paradise_ without running into another group of these guys, not that you couldn’t handle it, Penny,” Ruby said.

“Avoiding them is the wisest policy,” Penny said.

"Well, we don't even know how many of them are crawling around out here," Neon said. "We need more information. If they found _Paradise_ , who knows what they have watching her."

“Yeah, it sucks,” Ruby sighed, “but we’ll just have to be careful not to--what are you doing with that?”

Penny had walked over to the most "un-damaged" of the four robots she'd dismantled and pulled it up by the shoulders.

Before explaining herself, Penny’s data-probe shot out of her forearm, and she stabbed it up through the robot’s neck into its processor-brain. A flash of electricity sparked between them while Penny’s eyes flashed green as it took in the information.

"Two transport ships. Eight Atlesian Knight-600s each. One Special Operative leading them."

Ruby’s leg pain returned in full force at the idea of going up against one of those Specialist bastards again.

“You think you can take them?” Neon asked the android.

Penny twirled in her dress and crossed her hands behind her back. “My model is designed to even combat Hunter-class opponents, including Atlesian Special Operatives.”

“So… yes?”

“If it comes to that. They’re tougher than Atlesian Knight-600s, you know.”

“Oh, good to know.” Neon laughed. “Then let’s go get our ship back!”

“They sent eight Atlesian Knight-600s up here to search for us, two to guard the ship, and two on each of the three lifts between the docks and the upper city. No updated information on the location of the Special Operative, however.”

“So how do we get down there without alerting any of them?” Ruby asked. “Our safety is one thing, but we can’t get any more settlers mixed up in this.”

Penny nodded. “Protecting civilians is a priority.”

“ _Protecting_ civilians?” Neon put her hands on her hips and leaned toward Penny. “Are you sure you’re built by Atlas?”

Penny had to be stopped before she recited her manufacturing history once again, but eventually, she hopped up to the second floor where the two AKs had crashed down through. Wiping some dirt off a surviving glass window, she peered out over the settlement and toward the cliff’s edge to get a bearing on their location and situation.

“I have an idea!” Penny called down.

Neon and Ruby looked at each other. Trusting her hadn’t gone wrong so far, what could a little more hurt? 

“What is it?” Ruby yelled.

Penny jumped back down to the first floor with grace and smiled to herself.

They didn’t get it at first. Then it clicked.

“You mean… off the cliff?” Ruby asked.

Penny had her fingers mime a figure running and jumping off a sheer drop, smiled, and crossed her hands behind her back again.

The daredevil attitude inside Neon that was never quite beaten out of her, forced a massive smile to spread across the pilot’s face.

As for Ruby, a feeling bubbled up inside her chest. Next to the fear, was one she hadn’t felt in a long time. The feeling that anything was possible. That she could take on the world and win!

It lasted for just a moment, the nostalgic taste of who she used to be. But it was enough for her own grin, now matching both her friends, to spread across her face.

Ruby nodded excitedly, ready for whatever crazy adventures Penny would drag her to.

“Alright! Let’s do it!”


	4. Chapter 4

With a thunderclap, the edges of the katana and cutlass ground together. Metal clashed against metal. Locked in combat, Blake’s Aura sparked against the Specialist’s.

Blake had changed to one-handed techniques, waiting for this opportunity. Reaching down, Blake removed her katana’s sheath from her waist, a concealed three-phase weapon. Holding it in her left hand, she transformed it into an automatic pistol and fired.

Operative Cerulean broke off just in time and rolled out of the way of Blake’s attack. This left his back open to be carved apart by an oncoming sword strike. 

From their brief exchange, it was obvious Blake was superior at swordplay. But misdirection was her true specialty. One of her common opening tactics: Attack before revealing her sheath as a deadly weapon as well. While her opponent defends from the new threat, she follows-up with her katana. This was her two-piece weapon: _Blooming Shroud._

But before she could begin her final strike, the two sapphire spheres shot back to her position, buried themselves in concrete and bounced up, one aimed at her chest and the other at her neck.

Blake only managed to dodge by throwing out a shadow. The spheres fell for the feint, but only as long as it stuck around, and the Specialist's Semblance was strong enough to destroy her shadows with a graze.

The spheres flew through and past the shadow, ricochet midair twice--three times--then randomly jerked and zoomed back at Blake’s real body.

Blake pulled taut a ribbon attached to her gun and wrapped it around her left forearm. The flick of a hidden switch and the pistol shifted it into its third form: a sickle. Blake threw it behind her, grappling the edge of the platform as the Specialist and his retaliating Semblance both attacked--the empty air as the ribbon snapped her away like a bungee cord.

Through all this, Cinder was watching. Ducked down near the ground, she peeked out from behind the doors of the scrap shop. From how they were zipping around, the spheres acted like they were operating without any conscious effort. The user probably didn't have any control over them, outside of releasing and calling back. Cinder squinted as she analyzed, hoping its uncontrollable nature would reveal the Semblance's weakness, or, at the very least, give her a clue on how they could set up a fatal opening.

Blake landed cat-like on the edge of the platform, just over ten yards away from the Specialist. Her sudden escape was impressive, but it limited where she could run, and the spheres were already on her. She jerked her head up, eyes wide as the missiles flew toward her, ready to strike and send her falling down the cliff’s edge to the jagged ice below.

The two spheres split the air, both following Blake’s escape path. She didn’t even have time to flinch before they were inches away from her face and--bounced off the space in front of her.

Like their work was done, both spheres floated back to their Specialist.

A quiet pause passed as Blake and the Specialist both realized what had happened.

Blake gripped her sickle in one hand, her katana in the other, ready for more attacks that didn’t come. Like she was testing a cold pool before dipping in, Blake put the tip of her foot a step forward.

The spheres spun in a glowing fury and flung themselves at her shoe.

Blake pulled back.

The Sphere’s stopped and meandered through the air until they returned to their user, who swore under his breath; The Faunus had figured out his ability’s secret.

 _So he has a range,_ Cinder thought, putting her mechanical clawed hand on her chin. _Looks like a ten-yard radius. Anything inside is pummeled by his conjured Aura…_

Blake walked along the edge of his Semblance’s zone, deciding how to jump back in, or if she was better off trying to attack from a distance. She’d only just gotten more space to maneuver behind her when Cerulean charged, the radius of his Semblance encompassing her as he and the spheres attacked.

It was difficult to play keep-away on an elevated platform with an opponent chasing you. Even harder when he moved faster than his broad build would suggest. His reflexes and speed were where he'd trained using his Aura. With his Semblance, he didn't need strength or raw power. As long as he was fast enough to keep close, and agile enough to avoid attacks, his Semblance would do the rest of the job for him.

Blake blocked and parried a swing from his cutlass, throwing off his balance with her greater strength. However, she didn't have time to counter before she was forced to dodge one of the spheres swinging through the air ruthlessly.

She barely deflected the second sphere with her blade as she ran, but not fast enough. Both spheres honed in from the front and behind. Tracking their zipping movements were difficult even from Cinder's distance, so in the thick of it, it must have been near impossible.

One of the Semblances tore through Blake, or rather, her shadow. The Specialist was ready for that, shooting a slug at Blake as soon as she appeared. But he wasn’t the only Aura-user who had enhanced reflexes. Blake ducked out of the path of the shot but didn’t have time to react to one of the balls grazing her shoulder. She clenched her teeth in pain. A chunk of her Aura was missing, and there was a bruise all the way to the bone underneath. A centimeter closer, and it would have wrenched her arm useless.

If she focused on attacking, the Semblance attacked. If she ran, the Specialist would attack. She was trapped.

A shadow was torn apart; Blake appeared steps away, and the spheres instantly ripped through the air toward her. Another shadow destroyed. Appearing and disappearing, zapping away from the Semblance every instant. The image of Blake manifesting before being snuffed out of existence teleported sporadically around the battle's arena. Cinder could only imagine how Blake had to be moving to be dropping so many shadows so often: A bizarre series of ducks and weaves that Blake's Semblance wouldn't let any witnesses perceive.

From Cinder's understanding, Midnight Mirage was a Semblance that conjured an image of its user. Through a psychic attractor, the Semblance wouldn't allow anyone seeing the image to notice the activities of its user until the identical shadow was destroyed. But if Blake moved to interact or attack someone, the effect would vanish.

The final Blake popped into existence as another shadow was shredded, but she'd escaped outside the Specialist's range once again. She gasped for breath and recharged her Aura to recover from the rapid-fire use of her Semblance.

“Haha!” How do you like my Loyal Sentinel!” Operative Cerulean called out to her. The wide grin on his face almost distracted from his puffing chest as he caught his own breath. Running around after the shadows, as well as keeping his Semblance running strained him as well, but his offensive ability was too powerful to let her take advantage of that. “It appears my resolve outweighs your own, Faunus!”

Cinder wasn’t the only one watching the fight. Flynt had wandered out past the entrance of the shop in full view, looking out with his employer at the duel. After rolling up his sleeves, he took off his hat, put his sunglasses in it, and tossed them to the side.

“What are you doing?” Cinder whispered through her teeth. “You can’t win against a Specialist!”

“You guys aren’t the only ones depending on me. And I can’t help them in a military prison.” Flynt took a deep breath and ran out onto the platform.

Cinder sighed. _If both my Semblance-users get themselves killed, I’ll…_

She paused her thought. If they died, she’d be next, so at least she wouldn’t be pissed about it for long.

Flynt split in half twice, four identical men ready to join the fight. Two ran into the deadly range of the Semblance, where one was immediately headshot by a sphere, and the other tried to dodge, but his leg was pummeled. As they were taken down, a third Split rushed past them, getting close enough that the Specialist had to acknowledge him.

This Flynt went for a punch, but the Specialist dodged. Flynt held his arms up and jabbed for his face, two quick punches to the Aura-protected jaw. His boxing stance suggested some experience in the ring, his fists grazing off the Specialist's Aura, but his effort was rewarded with a cutlass through the gut.

The clone shattered--a sparkle of energy dispersing filled its opponent’s vision long enough for a ribbon and sickle to appear through it, thrown from across the platform and tightly wrapping around the cutlass.

The Specialist clung to his weapon with both hands, preventing Blake from yanking it away, but she never planned on disarming him. Blake pulled herself toward the Specialist like an elastic snap, appearing in the center of his Semblance’s zone in the blink of an eye and slashed across his chest. The cut wasn't deep enough to injure the man underneath the shielding, but it had visibly weakened his Aura's stability. Two or three more and his Aura would shatter, leaving him defenseless.

Both spheres, having finished off the last of Flynt’s clones, rushed Blake. She gripped the ribbon and pulled the Specialist's arms and cutlass up, positioning his weapon between her and the Semblance. Both balls crashed against it, metal and gears bent and fell apart horrendously as the gun exploded. The Specialist was free of the ribbon, but with no way to attack Blake, who disappeared in another shadow just as the spheres bounced back and ripped through its forehead.

“Clever,“ Cerulean humphed. He turned, dodging a swipe from her sickle and sidestepping a slash from her katana. Finding an opening, he punched at her, fists like burning cannonballs at the Aura covering her skull. “Your friend isn't the only pugilist around here!”

Blake managed to dodge, staggering back, a rush of hot air blowing through her hair from the path of his swings. Before she had a chance to see how his bare fists would hold up against her blade, Blake was forced to dodge his Semblance ruthlessly attacking her position again.

“Time I finished this!” Cerulean shouted, his voice carrying beyond Blake and Flynt, echoing up and down the cliffside their platform extended out from.

The two spheres accelerated, turning into bright lines bouncing around like blue lasers in an ocean of mirrors.

Blake let go of her sickle and grabbed the ribbon it was attached to, spinning it through the air and whipped the weapon in his direction. She grazed his leg, but he watched her movements well enough to dodge the next few strikes. With no cutlass to block with, all he had to do was keep her at a distance, but close enough that his Semblance could tear her apart. Just as she tried swinging her sickle weapon at him again, both lines of light shot toward her spine.

Before they reached her, another Flynt-clone rushed forward and jumped in the way of the projectile. He took the hit, giving her the split second she needed to deflect the other line of light and run.

Cinder watched Flynt's Split fall. _It only took a single hit to kill that one,_ she thought. Flynt was naturally gifted, but his Aura couldn't hold up with this strategy. Creating clones took most of his Aura reserves, and with no training, he couldn't keep up with the demand of a fight where he had to constantly sacrifice his Splits.

He had no experience, and it was going to cost Blake her life, and she was the only thing keeping the Operative from killing him and Cinder.

 _They can’t beat him at this rate,_ Cinder thought, _only hold him off._

Her crew was scampering at this point. They were on the other end of the platform now, the Specialist between them and where Cinder was hiding. Blake was unable to escape from the Specialist again; Flynt threw out weaker and weaker clones that any second wouldn't be able to hold back a hit for Blake. His breath was ragged, and as soon as his depleting Aura ran out, the fight would end. As defensive and careful as he was, the Specialist was focusing all his attention on killing these interlopers.

Cinder sighed. “What a mess.” She stepped out from behind her cover and walked across to the cowering figure of Lime. Reaching out, she delicately handed him the _Always One More Dance_ vinyl. “If anything happens to this, I’ll kill you.”

Then she ran toward the platform.

 _I’m betting those spheres hone in on Aura._ The possibility existed that they sensed movement or body heat. Blake’s shadows, however, were only images, so the only way the spheres could be drawn to them was by picking up on the Aura constructing them. _If I’m wrong, I’ll find out the hard way,_ Cinder thought, _but we’ll never beat this bastard unless I play my ace right here!_

His back was turned to her as he faced Blake. The Faunus was trying to get close enough to him to attack again while he tried punching her in return. This was Cinder’s chance, and she stepped into the radius of his Semblance. If she was right, with no Aura activated to attract them, the bouncing lines of light wouldn't bother with her, but she had to be fast, or a stray shot would pick her off anyway.

Cinder ran in, and the Semblance didn’t even flinch in response.

 _Right as always,_ Cinder thought, a thin smile creeping up her face as the sound of fighting and Aura crackling masked her footsteps. _Just distract him long enough for me to finish this!_

The claws on her prosthetic hand flexed.

Only two steps away, the Specialist finally heard her sprinting across the platform. He sharply turned as Cinder rushed in, flanking him like an ambushing predator.

Cerulean grit his teeth in frustration. Another opponent he'd have to wear down. But his jaw went slack when he saw what she'd planned for him. A red glow appeared on his face: the basking light of a freshly activated Aura spreading across Cinder’s body.

Bright orange and red dripped off the reflection of Cinder in his eyes. Seeing the build-up of energy, realization mixed with shock. The leader of the criminals he was hunting was an Aura-user as well, and just like her two comrades, she had access to a Semblance.

Cinder got one step closer. It was now or never. The Specialist had made the mistake of assuming that just because she stayed hidden she was helpless against him, an error that would cost him the match.

Heat pooled in Cinder’s left cybernetic hand, a blood-red flare swirling in her palm. Energy crackled around her, scorching the platform as she activated her Semblance.

However, the Specialist’s shock only lasted a moment. This fight required a clear head, and he’d noticed her approach early enough. Cerulean jumped back just as she thrust her metallic arm with the Semblance power in its palm toward his face. She stretched out, but her target was just out of reach.

The sapphire lines attacking the Flynts and Blake jerked away from their previous targets to focus on the higher density of Aura-power near its user. They lurched back, closing the ten-yard gap to tear the fiery woman to shreds now that Cerulean had escaped her grip. She’d committed to her move, miscalculated, and now that her Aura was activated, she had nowhere to run.

At least, that's what Cinder assumed the dense Atlas zealot was thinking.

Just as a satisfied smile crossed the Specialist's lips, Cinder's cybernetic arm extended twice its length, striking like a cobra. The claws wrapped around his face, digging into the Aura protecting his skin as a fiery inferno of power blinded him.

He couldn’t make a sound, but his eyes did the screaming for him. Cinder didn’t have time to take satisfaction from his fear, however. The sapphire Semblance was still racing toward her, less than a second before impact.

Cinder grit her teeth, snarling like an animal. Red fire streamed out of her remaining eye as she called forth her Semblance’s power!

_“CRIMSON END!!!”_

His Aura exploded. The energy building up in her monstrous hand surged into his Aura, transforming it into an explosive plasma that burst around him. With no resistance, he burned against the rage of a dragon, the once protective Aura immediately combusting and melting away like molten glass.

The invisible border of Cerulean’s Semblance shattered. A dome of crystal fell as her power spread through him, a wildfire damning the entire platform as the two spheres still charging Cinder vanished in a puff of ash.

Operative Cerulean groaned in shock and pain, the edges of his clothes and hair on fire from the effect of the Semblance, blistering burns in patches around his exposed skin. Cinder dropped him as her extended arm snapped back into place. Her claws flexed as the red energy remained around her, a pyre of burning power as she glared down at the cowering officer.

Cinder stepped forward, the fires surrounding her hungry for more.

Cerulean turned, crawling before he finally clambered up to his weak legs and ran, only getting three steps before a wrench spun through the air and clocked him on the head.

He limply fell to the platform, face first. There was a soft bounce, and he lay still.

Cinder turned to the entrance of the shop where the projectile had come from. Ma was standing there, her arm stretched forward like a pitcher after striking out a batter, just with none of the enthusiasm. She stood up straight, gave Cinder and company a thumbs up, before turning around to get back to work.

 _Team effort all the way to the end,_ Cinder thought with a shrug and checked on her crew. Blake and Flynt had been just as surprised as the Specialist at Cinder's sudden appearance and one-hit destruction of his Aura, but they were more relieved that the constant Semblance attacks had stopped, happily catching their breaths now that the danger had passed.

Cinder dosed the inferno within her, and her Aura went with it. Cold air surrounded her, filling in the space her fire had retreated from. It felt like an ocean dumping on top of her, burying her in its depths. The rush of power was gone.

 _You used them, Cinder._ A voice crept into her mind. It was comforting but cruel. A once innocent smile twisted into a spiteful grin. Malice on the verge of tears. _You treated your comrades like bait. You haven’t changed after all…_

Cinder shook off the voice and the numbness spreading down the left side of her body. Putting on an impartial face, she joined Flynt and Blake, who were staring down at the unconscious Specialist.

Flynt’s one and a half surviving clones reabsorbed into the one that had technically never engaged in the fight. He still looked exhausted and bruised, however. “You had an Aura? This whole time?”

“Your welcome.” Cinder raised a lip at him.

He sighed. “Neon’s not going to let me live this down,” he mumbled and nudged the officer’s body with his shoe. “So, we have an unconscious Atlas Specialist. What do we do with him?”

Blake transformed her sickle back into a sheath and cleaned Aura remnants off her sword with her sleeve. “He knows our ship, which makes him too dangerous to leave here.”

“You want to take him with us?”

Blake looked at her katana. “I was thinking of a more permanent solution.”

“What? _No!_ ” Flynt rejected her implication but stepped away from her. “We can’t just kill a guy… in front of Lime’s place.”

“That’s fair.” Blake sheathed her sword. “Maybe we should dump him off the side?”

_“Look out below!!!”_

Cinder and crew looked up, to see something hopping back and forth down the levels and docks toward them.

“Is that…” Blake's eyes widened. “ _Ruby?_ ”

A figure--or, a clump of figures, rather--dropped in the center of the platform. Cushioning the fall with a burst of white energy, the one holding up the rest gracefully landed in a crouching position next to Blake and Flynt. They both flinched before recognizing the Penny-model android, now wearing a green and grey dress. Ruby was in her arms, and Neon cackled as she hopped off the robot's back, brushing some stray strands of hair out of her face. "What a ride!"

“Phew!” Ruby wobbly stood up like she'd gotten off a roller coaster. "Thanks for the lift, Penny."

“Anytime!” Penny smiled with a bow.

Cinder stared dumbly. She knew that white energy clinging to the android’s body. Her eye was the only thing she trusted at this point, but she still momentarily questioned her sanity. _What the hell? A machine with an Aura? That’s not possible._

"Guys!" Ruby was happy she found them in time, but her tone was alarming. "There's a Specialist out here, and they have--"

Blake and Flynt pointed to the body lying at their feet.

“Oh…” Ruby looked back up at them, scuffed and bruised. “Guess you took care of it.”

Blake stared past her girlfriend to the android, also recognizing the bizarre and impossible ability it had. But, unlike Cinder, she didn’t look shocked at its existence. Instead, she was frightened. “Is that…”

“Long story,” Ruby responded, a touch of shame in her voice. “Don’t worry, she’s on our side.”

“Hello again!” Penny chirped.

“Sure…” Blake stood down. “If you say so.”

Ruby smiled, a balloon of anxiety finally let go by seeing her partner safe from danger, and rushed forward. Her sprint ended with a limp, and she fell into Blake’s arms, embracing her.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Ruby said, burying herself into the Faunus’s shoulder. Disconnected from her relieved voice, however, were her eyes, wide open and glaring at the officer lying nearby.

Cinder stared at Ruby, clutched to her partner. How unlike the young woman she’d come to know over the past year. The emptiness was gone, replaced by a smile on her face, a light in her eyes… No, if Cinder was forced to describe it, she’d say someone had increased the saturation in her monochrome irises. Not better, just more. There was no light in her dark silver eyes.

Neon crossed her arms behind her head and yawned. “What are you planning to do with this big guy?”

“We take him with us,” Ruby said before anyone could raise an opinion.

Blake winced at the suggestion. “Ruby!”

“Penny is what that Black Lily doctor was working on. I’m positive,” Ruby said.

Blake turned back to Penny, showing anger to hide the obvious fear and confusion. “You!”

Neon stepped between them. “We kinda need to go rescue the ship. Penny’s not to blame here, but if we interrogate this guy, we might find out who is. It’s a good idea.”

Blake looked conflicted. She clenched her fist before staring back at Ruby’s determination. “It’s too risky.”

Cinder looked on, utterly confused. This was the first time they’d openly talked about what happened to Ruby around her, and she had no idea what any of it meant. A quick look over at Flynt, and it was apparent he couldn’t follow the conversation either. He glanced back at his employer in solidarity and shrugged.

“We’ll figure out what to do with him later,” Cinder said, flexing her authority. “For now, we bring him.”

Blake bit her lip but didn’t argue the point.

“Flynt, carry our new friend,” Cinder ordered. “Feel free to bump his head on any walls or poles on the way up.”

With a small flare of Aura, Flynt hefted the larger man onto his back and slowly walked across the platform. “Neon, can you grab my hat and glasses? I left them next to the shop door.”

Neon saluted, retrieved them, then wore them. Stylishly, she sauntered near the back of the group. Posing for Flynt's attention now that he couldn't do anything about it.

 _That reminds me,_ Cinder thought.

As everyone ran ahead, Cinder trailed behind. Making sure no one was looking, she walked back to the shop, up to Lime, who was still peeking out from behind the door, clutching Cinder’s prize to his chest.

Cinder plucked the vinyl away, and in return, handed him a wad of plastic lien. “Sorry about breaking our deal,” she said. “Good working with you, Lime.”

The last Cinder saw of Lime was a hesitant nod and wave as he looked out at his shattered landing pad. It was riddled with torn-up concrete from the Aura spheres and blasts of fiery energy--so much for the last two weeks of his profits.

Cinder caught up with the crew as they reached the upper platform where _Paradise_ was parked. Two AKs stood guarding on either end of the loading ramp at the front of the ship. Not missing a beat, Blake and Penny charged in parallel paths simultaneously. Both their Auras flared with power as they crossed the platform in an instant before the opposing robots could bark a “Halt” or “Target acquired!”

Blake rushed the closest enemy and impaled her katana through its chest, which would work great against anything _but_ an Atlesian robot. It retaliated, its rifle transforming into a sword that swung for her neck. Dodging it, Blake removed her katana, disappearing as the AK cut through her shadow, and re-appearing behind the robot, stabbing it again, this time through the jugular. This still wasn't enough to finish it off, until she cranked her stiff blade like a lever. Like a wrench opening a fire hydrant, Blake twisted her sword through the robot, prying and slicing its metal-reinforced neck until it cracked off with a fountain of sparks.

The sizzling metallic head bounced down the platform, where Neon kicked it off the side with a wide grin on her face.

Cinder almost wondered how Neon could be so casual about all this. A Kingdom’s military was hunting them down for fuck’s sake, and even Neon knew when to drop the airhead act. But then, Cinder saw Penny fight the other AK, and her question was prematurely answered.

Penny ducked and weaved in a lightning-fast exchange. Her mobility minimized damage to her Aura while she poured power into several returning blows to the AK's body and head. Metal brutally dented and shredded, and Cinder belatedly noticed that the AK's rifle had been destroyed, leaving it mostly defenseless. Penny's figure blurred as she moved forward, shifting all her weight into a straight punch at her opponent's chest. The armored AK flew back, off the side of the dock, and plummeted to its doom below.

Cinder leaned over the side. A crunch echoed up the cliff as the robot slammed against the wall, shattering before it scattered on the ice below.

Penny grinned at the sound and turned to Blake with a raised hand. “High-five!”

Blake looked it up and down, then turned to Ruby and Neon running up to her on the ramp. “You dressed it up?”

“Duh!” Neon said. “Without clothes, she’s a little conspicuous, don't ya think.”

Blake rolled her eyes and went on ahead.

Cinder closed the ramp behind her crew after they’d checked out the ship for any hidden AK’s or Atlas troops. Their salvaged cargo had been searched through, but at a glance, nothing had been taken yet. Blake stayed below to tie up the Specialist in the cargo hold as the rest of the crew ran up to the top deck.

Neon hopped into her pilot seat as the rest of the crew burst onto the bridge. Flynt sat next to her in the co-pilot station as they started up the engines, and the ship lifted into the air.

“Directions, Captain?” Neon asked, gripping the yoke.

“Far away from here, and as fast as possible,” Cinder growled.

“Aye, aye, Captain!” Neon shouted as the ship lurched up above the Settlement and roared to the west.

“Get back to the engine bay!” Cinder yelled over her shoulder, but Ruby was already running down the hall. Good girl.

Cinder stood and gripped the rail behind the pilot seats as she stared forward through the wide window at the vast frozen sea burning red with the light of the sun setting below its horizon.

Someone tugged on her sleeve.

Cinder whipped her head around, face-to-face with the android that called itself Penny. 

“Oh, it’s you…” 

Now that Cinder had a good look at her, Neon and Ruby really had dolled her up. A little bow on top and everything.

“Ruby and Neon gave me clothes!” Penny said as she twirled around.

Cinder turned back to the front of the bridge. _Sure thing, robot._

A control started beeping on Neon’s dashboard.

“Two ships on our tail!” Neon shouted. “It’s the Atlesian transports.” 

Before Cinder could react, a loud metallic thunk rang through the ship.

“And they’re not even giving us a warning shot!”

“Move this heap of junk faster!” Cinder said through gritted teeth.

“She wasn’t built for speed, Captain!” Neon yelled back, rising in altitude for more room to maneuver _Paradise_ around.

Blake ran onto the bridge and strapped herself into the ship systems station behind Cinder. “Are we being shot at?”

Flynt nodded while he gripped the armrests of his chair.

“Flynt!” Cinder yelled. “Get one of your asses over and help Ruby in the engine bay, and another one to the rear guns.”

“The guns?” Flynt asked.

“Us or them, Flynt. Make a call. Neon! Can you get us back to the cliffs?”

"Not without them flanking us. Losing them there would be near impossible if that's what you're thinking."

A hail of bullets grazed but mostly missed the starboard side of the ship. Flynt shot two Splits up and out of his chair that ran past Cinder toward the back. Despite his glowing Aura, his breath was ragged. There hadn't been enough time to recover since the fight with the Specialist. He was starting to stretch himself thin, but his clones were still solid enough to get the job done.

Blake looked at the sensors reporting on the ship’s condition. “That last one hit the stabilizer's armor," she said, "but no severe damage."

Cinder nodded. “We have their commander tied up in our cargo hold. They’ll try to force us into an emergency landing, not destroy us.” An advantage, maybe their only one.

Penny poked at Cinder’s shoulder.

Cinder turned. Somehow this thing was standing up just fine even in the speeding ship that was swaying back and forth to avoid shots from its pursuers.

“Am I cute?”

Cinder blinked. “What?”

“Do you think I’m cute?” Penny gazed up at her intently.

“Yeah… I guess?” Cinder turned back to Neon and Flynt, ignoring the malfunctioning appliance victoriously fist-pumping next to her. It sat down at the communication station across from Blake, smiling to herself, just as another volley of high caliber bullets riddled the wing.

Ruby’s voice came over the intercom. “That switch over there, Flynt!” she said before addressing the bridge. “I’ve put all power into the engines.”

Blake’s station lit up to show the new distribution of power and Neon punched her controls. A burst of speed almost threw Cinder on her ass, but she kept her flesh hand gripped to the rail.

“Let’s push this baby to the limit!!!” Neon cried.

Their cargo ship flew forward in a streak, but their two pursuers only had to accelerate to keep up. Neon was able to dodge and weave the occasional fire, lurching _Paradise_ to the side and serpentining whenever they were locked on, but couldn't shake them. From the radar scanners, one Atlesian ship was in the front doing all the shooting, with the other trailing just behind.

The open sea gave Cinder nothing to work with. No clouds, no way to lose them or outmaneuver them or… wait… There was something in the Frozen Sea she could use. The one hazard out here that Penny so easily skirted around that Cinder never considered it much of a threat. Until now.

Cinder leaned her head up by the back of Neon’s chair. “Where’s the nearest geyser field?”

“Not too far,” Neon said in a dangerously excited tone, picking up on Cinder’s implication. She lowered the ship’s altitude to a couple hundred meters and turned their trajectory toward their trap’s location. Naturally, the two Atlesian ships followed without hesitation.

 _That’s right,_ Cinder thought, _come at me, Atlas! You think that even in my current state I wouldn't surround myself with a crew that could handle this? Can you say the same? Do you think you hold a candle to the subordinates I chose?_

Her claws clenched as her eye locked forward.

_For getting in my way, you’ve earned this icy grave._

_Paradise_ flew west toward the setting sun, its blinding rays coated the bridge in blood-red light.

“Can’t see a thing,” Flynt said as he shielded his eyes.

Neon squinted. "Neither can they, and I'm betting I'm better than some mediocre academy pilot."

Just in front of them, shielding the surface of the sea from the sun by casting long misty shadows, were geysers bursting out of cracks in the ice, jutting up in a towering field of boiling water.

"Everyone, hang on!" Neon yanked her yoke down and accelerated. Dust was sucked out of the ship's storage to the reactor Ruby and a Flynt maintained. The engines erupted with power and launched them forward. The ship's hull barely kept together as _Paradise_ cut through the air toward the hazardous natural phenomenon.

“Wait… Hang on?” Flynt asked. “You never say, ‘Hang on!’”

One of the other Flynts called from the rear gunner chamber. “Even when I can hit these guys, their armor’s too tough for our guns.”

“Just keep covering us,” Cinder called back then turned to her pilot. “Neon, do whatever it takes to keep us in one piece!”

“ _Anything?_ ” Neon put on a wicked smile.

“Anything!”

Neon started doing the math: She looked at the radar; Counted on her fingers; Mumbled about how far ahead _Paradise_ was compared to the Atlesian ship in front; Whether or not the other pilots would be smart and slow down once they entered the geyser field… Whatever she calculated, it made her laugh to herself as she flicked several switches in front of her before calling Ruby. “Ruby, I need the power to maneuver and burn out the stabilizer engines if I need to, now! And give me access to the grappling canons.”

“The hell can you do with those?” Flynt asked.

“Watch me work, beautiful!” Neon yelled as she flew directly into the geyser field.

Ruby called up again. “What the hell is going on out there?”

“Don’t worry,” Neon said as the pillars of water dangerously shot up alongside the ship. “It’s just an advanced 360-degree spin grappling shot at a moving target. I’m using an _Orca_ -class instead of a racer, but I’ll manage.”

"Are you sure about this?" Blake asked, her cold attitude shaken by the chase.

“I’ve done it tons of times!”

“Since you lost your Aura?”

“......”

_“Before or after, Neon???”_

Bullets hit the hull again. Somewhere, the sound of a window shattering rang up from the depths of the ship, and Cinder felt a slight loss of air pressure.

Hot mist burned at the sides of the ship. If it weren't life or death, Cinder would mourn the paint peeled and fried off around the bullet holes and how much it would cost to fix both. But Cinder wasn't sure they would survive long enough for that concern to matter.

Neon looked around, her scanners not doing her much good here, eyeing the many pillars of water until she spotted an opening and turned the ship directly into the path of one that had just begun rising into the sky.

Cinder’s stomach twisted as she saw the deadly water heading directly at them. “Whoa. Whoa! Whoa!!!”

With both Atlesian pilots following them, Paradise flew right above the rising column, passing over it, just as the geyser rose and covered their escape, blocking the view of the two ships following them into the field.

"Those stabilizers better hold!" Neon jammed the controls to the side. Energy from the reactor spread nearly entirely to the gravity Dust embedded in the stabilizer wings. The back of the ship swung around as a space-altering pulse stopped _Paradise_ midair like an airbrake.

Everyone on the bridge clutched the nearest hold. Even Penny looked worried at this point as the ship whipped around and faced the geyser pillar they’d just passed over.

The first Atlas ship flew around the wall of boiling water and mist toward them. Hunter and prey roles reversed as they came face-to-face.

“Gotcha!” Neon grit her teeth as she fired both grappling canons. One of the wire lines missed, but the other buried itself through the target’s hull. The ship continued as Neon turned the engines of her ship against her catch’s momentum, making the entirety of _Paradise_ swing in place, the mass of the larger flying vessel taking control of the smaller. The cord between them went taut, spinning the hooked ship in a centripetal journey with _Paradise_ as its axis. A full three-hundred and sixty degrees around, just in time for the other transport to follow the others around the side of the mist and collide with its grappled ally.

A crunch of metal, before a fiery explosion covered Cinder’s view.

Neon, too focused on holding the ship upright, couldn’t reach any of her other switches. “Cut the line, Flynt!”

Flynt leaped out of his seat and slammed a hand the release switch. The metal line snapped out of the cannons, separating the crushed Atlas ships that plummeted to the boiling earth below in a fiery wreck.

The ship whipped back from the cords releasing, stalling the stabilizers as _Paradise_ joined her opponents in a steep descent.

Neon yelled over the intercom. “Ruby! I need power back to the main engine, stat!”

“Little difficult when I’m getting thrown around the room!” Ruby called back, her helping Flynt yelling in the background. “We’re still rerouting. Whatever you do, don’t push the thruster yet. You’ll blow the reactor!”

Cinder yelled over the bridge to Neon’s radio. “Tell her to take everything down to the fridge and pinball machine! We need that power, _now!_ ” She stared forward at the approaching ground, refusing to give in to panic. The ship spun, and Cinder felt weightless as they tipped into a freefall.

 _Come on, Ruby,_ Cinder thought. _Show me your potential. I invested in you, damn it! Show me that spirit Blake and Neon keep saying you have._

Her metal claw bent the rail in her grip. The view of impending broken-up ice filled the entirety of the window.

_Show me!_

Blake’s control panel lit up, showing the power rerouted to the thrusters. “She’s got it!”

Ruby called over the radio desperately: _“PUNCH IT!_ ”

Neon cranked the yoke down like she was pulling the entire metal hulk upward with her bare hands. Everyone behind her fell back, almost getting whiplash as the front of the ship twisted up. A blast from the engines behind them rocketed _Paradise_ away from a boiling icy death; toward the safety of the dark blue sky.

Everyone collectively let out their held breath, including Neon. Blake put her head in her arms on the station, and Flynt shut off his Aura, wincing from the sudden headache as the memories of his clones on the other side of the ship flew into him.

“That was way too close,” Flynt said, the other two Splits commenting on the memory of the one in the co-pilot seat before they fully integrated back into a single entity.

Cinder’s breathing hastened into a chuckle. A deep, grating noise that built into a roar as adrenaline took over. Putting her mechanical claws on her face, Cinder whipped her head back and laughed. She was victorious, just like the old days. It was hilarious that anyone thought they could even try to subvert her.

“That’s what you deserve for crossing Cinder Fall!!!” Cinder cackled at her fallen enemies.

Then Cinder realized where she was, who she was around, and what year it was. Slowly, she looked around the bridge with a frozen expression. Neon and Flynt stared over the backs of their chairs, and Blake glanced up from her station with a raised eyebrow. All three seeing for the first time an emotion from Cinder other than a scowl.

Penny looked at her, wide-eyed in wonder, and quietly applauded.

Cinder cleared her throat to hide her warm blush. Persistent, those damn old habits.

Her three crew members all turned away, pretending they didn’t see or hear anything. Momentarily, Blake called up the engine bay from her station to make sure her girlfriend wasn't hurt.

Flynt sighed and leaned back in his chair. His shoulders slumped as he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out his wallet, flipped through it, and without even looking at her, reached across and handed Neon four-hundred lien.

Neon stared at the money, for a moment, confused. Then, she spun her pilot seat around and gleefully pointed at Cinder.

“I knew it!”


	5. Chapter 5

“Wake up!” Cinder slapped her prisoner.

Jerking his head up as he snapped awake, Operative Cerulean immediately tried struggling. Quickly, he noticed the entire enemy crew had joined their leader for the interrogation, that his legs were tied together, and his wrists were bound to the armrests of a metal chair sitting in the cargo hold of his captors’ ship.

Before the Atlesian Specialist could get a good look at his surroundings, Cinder grabbed his chin with her metal hand, lining him up as she punched him in the nose.

Cerulean grunted and snorted some fresh blood. His long blonde hair matted against his forehead as he glared up at Cinder. “What are you?” he said with a croak and a cough. “Ex-Hunter? Freelancers?”

Cinder pulled up her own metal chair and sat in front of him with crossed legs and folded arms. “You’re not in a position to ask any questions, Atlas.” Despite knowing his name, it was better for her mindset and the interrogation if she turned his love of Atlas into a dehumanizing trait.

During the hours after their boiling-hot escape from Hailstone Outpost, Ruby and Neon had filled the rest of them in on the Penny-model robot’s condition as an Aura-wielding android. The idea that Atlas was creating technology that could hold an Aura was… bizarre and unsettling. Any Aura-user would feel that way. Aura was the extension of its user’s lifeforce. It was a common belief that it was the soul taking form. The idea that something like that could be quantified and used in a machine felt wrong, even to Cinder. It was hard to believe, but their captured Specialist was trusted with knowledge of Atlas’s top-secret experiments and many other impossibilities.

It wasn’t solidarity on Cinder’s part that she chose to have her crew stand as a united front. If she was going to get out of this alive, or without seeing the inside of an Atlas cell, she’d need their insight. Flynt stood nearby next to a pile of stolen Atlas cargo; Blake was by Neon and Ruby on the stairs, with their Penny android sitting on the steps between them. Both Blake and Flynt received minor medical attention, wearing a few bandages each as evidence of their earlier fight with the prisoner. While Aura protected its user from injury, getting hit still hurt like a bitch.

Their prisoner, for the time being, had no such protection.

“You will be hunted down for this,” Cerulean said in defiance.

Cinder shrugged. “Hailstone is out of range of any of your command centers. The only person left who knows we’re involved is yourself, and if you want to survive to tell your commanders about us, you’ll play nice.”

“Ha! As if I’d go into the field with AKs alone.” He turned and addressed the rest of the crew. “My pilots will report my capture. It’s only a matter of time before Governor Goldsong sends his other Specialists after me and takes back what is rightfully ours.”

Cerulean’s eyes passed over Penny as he said this. He knew a lot, but not enough to recognize it through Ruby and Neon’s disguise.

Whether or not Neon noticed this, she responded with a laugh, flashing her sharp teeth at him. “Those pilots are going to have a hard time warning anyone about us, buddy.”

At first, Cerulean didn’t understand, not until Neon mimed her two hands like they were ships exploding and crashing into the earth. He shot his glare back at Cinder. “What did you beasts do?!”

Cinder smirked at his venomous expression. “What evening is complete without a dose of double homicide?”

The confirmation was what finally got to the Specialist. “They… They were good men,” he said as he hung his head and his eyes widened in fury.

Satisfied that he understood his situation, Cinder reached her left arm up and snapped her metallic claws for Neon to toss her the collar she was holding. It flew through the air, and Cinder effortlessly caught it. It was constructed out of metal, a cartridge attached to the side with yellow glowing material inside, and an unlocked latch to secure around its victim's neck.

Cinder held it up under the man’s nose. “It’s incredible what gadgets we find out here in the Ruinous Zone. You know what this is, right?”

Cerulean only glared in response.

“An Aura suppression collar,” Cinder said, snatching it back and spinning it around. A device that would, if the wearer’s Aura signature was activated, shoot their neck with a cartridge of lightning Dust, shattering the Aura before it could form. “These are very dubious, legally, but that never stopped Atlas from using it on their prisoners, has it?”

“I see you’re bent on torturing me,” Cerulean said.

“Actually, no,” Cinder said. “Luckily for you, you’ve still got a few more hours before your Aura recovers enough to activate again. And even if it miraculously did,” Cinder flexed her metallic claws, “I can deal with it.” It would only take a single touch and her Crimson End would destroy it all over again. 

Her Semblance was a transformation-type. Cinder had heard of a Hunter a while back with the ability to transform her own Aura into flame for attacking, and Cinder’s power was somewhat similar. It more or less transformed any Aura that came in contact with her left hand into an explosive plasma. It didn’t matter how strong her opponent or how powerful their defenses, Cinder only needed a moment to end any encounter.

“I won’t fall to your interrogation.” Cerulean sat up straight, retaining as much pride as he could muster.

“Oh,” Cinder was the one to laugh this time, “I’m not the one who will interrogate you.” She stood up suddenly and held the collar to the side. Toward Ruby. “He’s all yours.”

Inhaling deeply, Ruby stepped forward.

Handing off the collar, Cinder retreated over by the ramp’s controls and computer panel near the front of the cargo hold.

Ruby stood in front of the Specialist, her silver eyes catching the light of the bulb in the ceiling, glowing as she glared down at him.

Cerulean matched her stare. “Special Operative Cerulean. Serial number: 11969.”

“Do you work for the people who built Penny?” Ruby asked.

“Special Operative Cerulean. Serial number: 11969.”

Ruby continued. “What do you know about Atlas’s Aura transfer experiments? Is that how you people made Penny?”

She got a reaction out of that one. What Ruby had said, it wasn’t supposed to come out of the mouth of a random salvager. “How do you--” he stammered before catching himself.

Ruby leaned over him, her long hair falling down in front of his face. “Tell me everything about the man who runs the Aura transfer experiments.”

He stared back at her, confused, trying to figure out how she knew these things until realization spread across his face. “My god... You’re one of them.”

Ruby shoved the inside of the shock collar against his neck. With an easy switch, the safety was removed that stopped her from manually activating the Dust cartridge. “Do you work for the doctor? The tall one with the bushy mustache. I _know_ he’s the one running your whole operation.”

Cerulean shook his head, unfazed by her threats. “There weren’t supposed to be any survivors. They said all the test subjects died or were silenced. But you… you escaped!”

“That governor you mentioned earlier. How is he connected to the lab? How is he connected to _Black Lily?_ ”

_She’s losing control,_ Cinder thought. Earlier, when Ruby asked to question him, Cinder obliged. She didn’t know specifics, but Ruby had her own issues to resolve. But interrogation wasn’t Ruby’s area of expertise. She didn’t have the stomach to get someone to crack.

Cerulean was the one to lean forward this time, squinting up at Ruby. "Who have you told about the Aura transfers?" he interrogated right back, any fear or despair evaporating as he faced off against this new enigma.

Ruby stepped back, removing the collar, realizing the bluff wouldn’t work. “I thought I’d hidden well enough,” she said in an empty voice. “I never thought I’d have to face someone from the project again. Last time I came across one of you, they chopped off my leg…”

Cerulean chuckled. “Got in over your head, girl?”

Ruby removed a wrench from her toolbelt in a smooth motion, swung down, and crushed the Specialist's hand.

Everyone jumped from the sudden violence.

Ruby glared down, her hands deadly still.

Cerulean grunted from the broken hand. “All right then,” he gasped for breath, “you’re serious.”

“You know where he is,” Ruby said, her hollow voice turning cold. 

It wasn’t a question, Cinder realized. Ruby was done with those.

_Good,_ Cinder thought.

“S-Special Operative Cerulean... Serial number: 11… 969,” he grunted out.

The wrench swung again. Ruby shattered the ones in his other hand. A crunch rang out as the metal of the tool impacted against the chair through his crushed metacarpal bones.

Standing only a few yards away, Flynt was starting to look sick. Penny’s expression of worry matched Blake and Neon standing on either side of her. Even Cinder’s face paled a little. The plan she'd suggested to Ruby was to scare him with the collar and nothing more. Cinder couldn't have planned for how much anger the other woman had been hiding under the surface for the last few hours. Imagine it, hours of waiting, knowing that the answers to her questers were in an unconscious prisoner in the cargo hold below. Waiting for a chance to make her demands, and now that she was face-to-face with him, all the months and years of fear and depression--the only version of Ruby that Cinder knew--boiled over into rage. Ruby wasn’t doing this for information, what she’d needed was catharsis. 

Cinder raised her chin, wondering if she should be worried or proud of this new development.

“Once your Aura’s back,” Ruby whispered harshly, “I’ll make you heal your hands incorrectly. Then I’ll break them again, heal you too fast, over and over again until you tell me what I want to know.”

Before the Specialist could respond, Ruby slammed the top of the wrench down into the first hand she’d broken. She twisted as it dug into his flesh, blood pooling and dripping down the sides of his hand and onto the cords that bound him.

“You know that sensation of complete helplessness you get when your Aura shatters? Imagine that, for every moment of your life, and you still won’t know what I wake up to. You monsters picked me apart. You took _everything_ from me!”

Ruby jammed the collar against the man’s neck. A bright spark of lightning shocked him as he convulsed for a half-second. She pulled back, the voltage leaving his burnt skin with her. It was only a taste of what she was willing to do.

“The doctor who did this to me!” Ruby screamed through gritted teeth. “What. Is. His. Name?!”

Cerulean’s ragged breaths turned into a deep chuckle. “You’re torturing the wrong person… It’s almost funny!”

Ruby hit him across the mouth, the tool still clenched in her hand.

As much as Cinder believed it would be good for Ruby to get this out of her system, if she killed the man before they got their information, they’d never know how to avoid the organization he represented going forward.

But only righteous fury remained as Ruby struck him again. Crushing his already broken nose. His lip cut between her bare fist and his teeth. A fractured eye-socket bone followed by another three--four hits. Her swings speeding up when--

Ruby’s arm was finally caught by Blake.

She sharply turned to see who denied her more satisfaction, but then saw her partner.

Blake’s expression was calm and stern. She didn’t need to say a word, but she quietly whispered, “That’s enough, Ruby. That’s enough.”

Ruby hung her head and dropped the wrench from her clenched hand. A metal clatter and a smear of blood left on the floor as Ruby let Blake wrap an arm around her shoulders and lead her away from the helpless man.

“So.. you weren’t coming after one of us…” Cerulean spat out blood as he spoke through a mangled nasal, “or the Penny-model. Just bad circumstances, which means… You’re the entire leak, girl.”

He lifted his head and glared--no, smiled, up at Ruby. 

"For a moment there," he said, "I was worried." The Specialist fiddled around inside his mouth with his tongue, like he was feeling for a broken tooth. Seemingly finding one, he inhaled to brace himself for what came next, and bit down.

A crunch followed by a hot bubbling sizzle. A sound that Cinder knew anywhere. No matter the situation, she could have picked that up. It heralded the final moment of Cinder’s old life after all. The last thing she heard before _she_ lost everything.

“My men…” Cerulean spat out a steaming lump of blood, “...won’t die in vain. For the glory of Atlas!”

Cinder’s metal arm reacted before conscious thought, punching the door controls. The ramp behind the Specialist dropped, high-altitude snow poured in with the wind as air pressure dropped and…

The Specialist started to glow. Orange lines filled his veins, spreading out from his throat and jaw. As they did, tears poured down his face, evaporating and spreading an odor of burning flesh and iron. His eyes and the flesh inside his mouth burned like melting embers, the consequence of his patriotic sacrifice. The last trace of humanity on his face was agonizing pain and regret as an alien scream erupted from his combusting throat.

“Flynt!” Cinder yelled, frozen in fear.

Flynt leaped forward, probably acting on instinct himself, and tackled as Cerulean’s skin and clothes started peeling away like burning paper, revealing hot crystal underneath. He, Flynt, and the chair fell and rolled down the ramp. At the last second, Flynt threw a clone behind him. It fell on its back at the top of the loading ramp, just as the original and the prisoner plummeted off the edge.

Flesh turned to Dust and exploded right under the ship. Everyone inside the cargo bay was thrown to the floor with no remorse.

The ship lurched to the side as Cinder slid against the wall. Her eyes were blurry for the several seconds it took for her to pull herself up, several seconds that it took for her to realize that her ship was falling. From the grinding noise winding down outside, the blast must have hit the wings and stalled the engines.

Cinder's brain analyzed the situation long before the panic set in. She jerked up, eyes searching through the room. Alarms blared, announcing the engine failure and a sudden drop in altitude. Ruby, Neon, and Blake were collapsed in a pile by the stairs, and she couldn't see the Penny-model. But Flynt was still holding on at the top of the ramp, sliding down toward the open icy air.

_No… Nononono!_ Cinder scampered up and ran to the ramp, her prosthetic extending itself to its full double-length and snatching him by the back of the collar. _Not again!_ Twisting her body, she threw him into the safety of the cargo hold just as turbulence shook the ship, and Cinder fell back-first toward the open maw below her.

Cinder hung there for a moment after losing her footing. The world’s movements slowed into a disorienting spin as her right hand reached out, unanswered in empty air.

That was when she spotted Penny, vaulting over Flynt from behind the cargo pile she was thrown behind during the explosion. Penny’s hand grabbed Cinder’s, effortlessly saving her from being flung outside the ship.

With a burst of Aura-power, Penny pulled Cinder back into the cargo bay. Despite her smaller size, she held onto Cinder as they both fell down on the floor next to the control panel.

Cinder caught her breath; it was near impossible with the freezing air blasting around her like a wind tunnel. Before she even realized she'd been snatched away from certain death, Penny was already up, holding onto the computer panel with one hand, and raising her other. Her glove shred in half as her hand split down the middle, and a long dagger-like object sprung out. It crackled with energy before she stabbed into the terminal. Cinder’s racing mind was somehow able to recognize the technology, a data-probe, realizing that the android was forcibly merging her consciousness with the ship’s computer systems.

A green flash in the android’s cybernetic eyes as the ship suddenly jerked up, the engines restarting with a roar on either side. “Hold onto something!” Penny called out.

Cinder reached up and gripped a handrail, glancing over her shoulder to see the tundra surface rapidly approaching through the open ramp door. Just before impact, the front of the ship pulled up, slowing their fall as they crashed into the icy ground.

There was an ear-splitting groan and rumble as the ship roughly skidded to a slow creaking halt.

Once everything settled, Penny ripped her blade-arm out of the thoroughly destroyed terminal as the lights turned back to normal and the alarms silenced. Eventually, the crew on the floor around her started climbing back to their feet.

“Sound off,” Cinder called out, rubbing her head. “Ruby?”

“Here.”

“Flynt?”

“Here,” he said shakily, adjusting his hat and glasses.

Neon jumped up. “Yeah, we’re all okay,” she said, helping Blake to her feet.

"Thanks." Blake had also hit her head in the rough landing. One ear was bent down as she winced, but she put on a brave face nonetheless. "Good save, Flynt," she said, helping him up in turn.

“Yeah…” His eyes looked a little too distant, shaking his head as he shut off his Aura. Probably the first time someone blew up right in front of him, poor guy. It’s hard to get that image out of your head. “What the hell was _that?_ ”

“Corrupting Dust bomb,” Cinder explained. “It’s a specially mixed Dust compound that, if ingested, spreads through the bloodstream and turns organic material into the Dust’s conjured form. Basically, it turns _you_ into an explosive.”

Cinder allowed herself to rub at the scars hidden behind the hair covering her face and neck. Despite Flynt saving them from the blast, Cinder could feel the heat. The old wounds burned, but she still built up the resolve to ignore it as she turned to Penny, who was standing nearby with a cutesy expression.

“What about you?” Cinder asked the android. “How did you land the ship?”

Penny stood at attention. “I watched Neon pilot earlier, so when I interfaced my processor with the ship’s systems, I was able to remotely restart the engines and steer us into a controlled landing with minimal damage!”

The lightbulb above her shattered.

“Minimal damage!” Penny repeated as if telling the ship to get with the program.

Neon laughed as she walked over. “Penny, I don’t care what Cinder says, you’re officially the co-pilot now.”

“Oh, goodie!” Penny high-fived the other pilot.

Cinder turned and looked down out of the still lowered ramp. It looked undamaged. Hopefully, only the armor on the bottom needed repairs. She was surprised but grateful that the whole floor didn’t give out with Penny’s miracle landing.

“Let’s go out and check for damage,” Cinder called out. “I want us flying as soon as possible! Ruby, are you okay enough to go check on the reactor.”

Ruby nodded. She looked more shaken than the rest of the crew, staring at where her tortured prisoner had sat moments before everything went wrong. It didn’t take her long, however, to pull herself up the stairs toward the engine bay to focus on work. The emotional outburst probably exhausted her _before_ a man exploded and the ship fell out of the sky. But there wasn’t any time to introspect about unearthed rage issues or the loss of Special Operative Cerulean.

On the bright side, he’d spared Cinder the guilt of having herself or Blake kill him.

Cinder walked out into the cold night landscape, the lights on the ship illuminating the blast mark left by the Specialist’s suicide. She’d gotten lucky, even more so than usual this time. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she’d gotten lax in her preparations and foresight. A mistake she would have to correct down the road.

It was weird, though, for a Specialist to have a bomb like that hidden on their person. Corruption Dust bombs were rare and more trouble than they were worth. Cinder assumed he’d concealed it in a false tooth, but why risk accidentally ingesting something like that? He obviously had it to prevent questioning, but Cerulean hadn’t seen her crew as much of a threat when he encountered them back in Hailstone.

Unless... his risky precautions were never intended to be used against her crew.

Who would be so dangerous that an Atlesian Specialist, a member of the most deadly group on the continent, would resort to killing themselves over being captured?

  
  


Dawn crept over the horizon by the time Cinder was able to go upstairs to her private cabin and clean the mess. They'd actually managed to avoid any severe damage. The engines were on their last leg, the bottom of the ship needed to be replaced, and the wiring and sensors throughout the ship were on the fritz. Even the intercom had stopped working, but that and the occasional broken lightswitch were the least of their concerns.

Neither was cleaning her room, but Cinder needed some time away from her crew.

“Get yourself together,” Cinder told herself, rubbing her eyes, her mechanical arm limp at her side. It felt more numb than usual since the explosion.

With the space-heater set upright, wall tapestry re-hung, and the new vinyl she'd snagged safe on the shelf with the rest of her collection, everything had returned to normal. At least in this one room.

With a clearer head that was starting to acknowledge her exhaustion, Cinder descended the steep spiral staircase that led from her room’s entrance to the crew’s living space. It was set between the hallway with the crew’s quarters, and the hall leading to Ruby’s workshop. There was a half-circle booth table next to a small kitchen. Nearby, pushed into the corner by the stairs, was a pinball machine and a broken arcade cabinet that was on Ruby’s long list of projects she promised she’d get around to someday.

Walking into the kitchen, Cinder turned on the electric kettle, sighed as she realized that in the crash, the leftover water had splashed all over the counter. Quickly, she dried up the mess, refilled the kettle (the water pipes thankfully hadn’t burst), and boiled some water for a cup of morning tea. The medicine for a chaotic day was a quick return to routine.

As she finished steeping the spiciest tea she had on hand, Cinder heard footsteps approaching down the metal floor of the hall. They were slightly uneven. Ruby then. That was fine.

“Hey, Cinder,” a far more conscious voice called out. Ruby looked out the long windows on the sides of the room, squinting at the light. “Good morning, I guess.”

“Shouldn’t you be helping the rest fix the ship,” Cinder said, tossing the teabag in the trash and closing the lid above it. As she thanked the ruling forces of the universe that garbage hadn't been thrown around in the crash, she walked over to the booth table, sat down, and leaned her head back while suppressing a yawn.

“We’re almost done,” Ruby said. “We just need to reorganize the control settings, so we can actually fly the ship. It will make it to a settlement for some basic repairs. I want to double-check the reactor just in case I missed some damage, though.”

“You all worked fast,” Cinder said, surprised. She’d been working with Flynt and Blake on the outside. It was more frustrating than usual cause Flynt was officially out of clones for the next few days, but they’d managed.

“Penny helped us,” Ruby explained. “She picked it up really fast. She’s a natural.”

“She’s a robot.” Cinder raised an eyebrow dismissively as she sipped her tea.

“Well… yeah, you’re right. As soon as everyone’s done on the bridge, Neon can fly us out of here before a Grimm pack shows up.”

A silence hung between them.

“While you were upstairs… we looked up Governor Goldsong,” Ruby said, rubbing the back of her head.

“The Specialist's boss?”

“Uh-huh… Blake doesn’t think it’s a real lead, but it’s the only thing I have.”

“So, who is he?”

“Zeta’s governor.”

Cinder nodded while rubbing her chin. Zeta was a port settlement on the south-east edge of Atlas’s territory on the other half of the continent. It made sense Cerulean deployed from there since it was the closest to the pirate crash they’d first found Penny.

Cinder looked up. Ruby clearly hadn’t said what she’d wanted to say. _She’s not making conversation, she wanted to talk about something._

“What is it?” Cinder gave permission to speak.

Ruby stood up straight, preparing herself for the fallout. “I’m resigning.”

Cinder blinked and took another drink of tea. “Uh-huh…”

“I was wondering if you’d be willing to go a little out of your way and drop me off in Zeta.”

“Zeta… What a coincidence.” Cinder gestured for Ruby to have a seat on the other side of the booth.

Ruby reluctantly sat down and played with her hands. “I have to go after these people, Cinder.”

“You do realize that Neon and Blake will leave with you. You’re effectively killing my business.”

“Yes… I’m sorry.”

“Well, Zeta surely has people looking for work. Shouldn't be too difficult to find crew members,” Cinder lied. She clicked her metal claws on the table.

Ruby’s past had remained unspoken. Cinder had never asked, and Ruby had never told her. It hadn’t mattered earlier, but Cinder needed an explanation now.

“What did they do to you?” Cinder looked Ruby over.

Ruby nodded, understanding. “You know I was a Freelancer,” she began. “I took jobs. Killed Grimm. Sometimes protected settlements from marauders. Two years ago, there was a farming town on the northern edge of Sanus being harassed by two Aura-users. I took the job, but they turned out to be undercover Atlas Specialists.

“I lost… I lost my leg when they captured me. They brought me to a carrier-class ship flying around the Solitas glaciers. It was a laboratory called the _Black Lily._ They were experimenting on their captives. Harvesting Aura and trying to transfer them to different vessels. Storing them in canisters, basically.”

Ruby laughed sadly at the horrible image, her heart clearly not in it, unconsciously rubbing her arms under her jacket sleeves for warmth. 

“They ripped it out of me… That’s how I met Neon. We were kept in the same cell. We only found out yesterday that they were putting all our Auras in machines, and someone’s ended up in Penny.”

Cinder was transfixed. Despite Ruby downplaying the events, it sounded horrifying. Losing an Aura was an incredibly rare, borderline impossible, traumatizing event. But Cinder had no idea that someone had robbed it from Ruby. Aura-power was the only reason Cinder had survived her childhood. The reason she was recruited and could rise through the ranks of her old syndicate. She’d be nothing without it. She couldn’t even imagine her recovery without its healing powers to deal with the pain. That’s the reality Ruby had existed in for the last two years. A life of cold powerlessness.

“But, you escaped?” Cinder asked.

Ruby nodded. “And we’ve been hiding out with Blake ever since. We don’t know if they’re looking for us. I can’t even risk going home until things quiet down. I thought if I ever ran into them again, it’d be them tracking me down and finishing me off, not an accident.”

_So, it turns out I hired a mechanic who was on the run from a weapon development kidnapping conspiracy,_ Cinder thought. _What the hell have I gotten myself mixed up in?_

“Why go after these people?” Cinder asked. “You have a chance to run again, and from the looks of things, they didn’t think you survived after you escaped. You got lucky. Use it to move on.”

_It worked for me._

Ruby clenched her fists. “I need them to pay!” Water built on the edges of her eyes, but Ruby kept any potential tears under control. “I want them to feel everything I did. I want to pick their whole operation apart, piece by piece until nothing’s left. I want justice for what they did to me, to Neon, and everyone else who didn’t get out.”

Cinder had to hold back a dark chuckle. No, tough love was a smarter play than mocking her reckless rage. “I can’t tell you this nicely… but you want to take on the Atlas military in your condition? You have a cheap leg that you can barely walk in a straight line with, and you can't leave my ship without a panic attacking sending you right back to your workshop."

_This is the safest place for you right now, and you know it,_ was the obvious implication Cinder wanted.

“This is the first lead I've ever found,” Ruby said, unfazed. “He ripped me apart just so they could build weapons. You’ve seen Penny fight. Imagine every AK with her abilities. He needs to be stopped.”

“This ‘he’ is the doctor with the mustache you mentioned downstairs?”

“He ran the laboratory. He’s the one behind it all. I could tell by how his Specialists treated him.”

"Let me get this straight, you want to hunt down a random sadistic mad scientist, even though he leads a group of Specialists who defeated you back when you were an Aura and Semblance-trained warrior, and will definitely and easily kill you the moment they find out you exist?"

“I’ll find a way,” Ruby shot back. “No matter what.”

Cinder sighed, her warning only strengthening the other woman’s resolve. “And my business is less important than saving the world?” she asked, dripping with sarcasm.

“Yes,” Ruby said. She didn’t regret her words, but immediately wished she’d responded more respectfully, lowering her eyes to the table. “You’ve helped me so much this last year, Cinder. I-I can never pay you back.”

Cinder scoffed. “Please. You have good skills, so I hired you for them. You don’t owe me anything.”

“Even then… I wish things could have ended differently, but I have to do this.”

Cinder sighed and looked out the window at the snow-covered landscape illuminated by golden sunlight. From the sounds of things… someone connected to the Atlas military was gaining power and influence as a weapon developer. Not an uncommon story. However, this one was a particularly nasty case. Whoever this doctor was, he was a man who didn’t care about the cost of his ambition.

_Sound familiar, Cinder?_ The voice in her head echoed.

Cinder squinted, but the accusation wasn’t wrong. Looking at Ruby again, the girl was obviously terrified, but her determination would carry her through. If that was enough to get things done, then Cinder almost pitied whoever was in this girl’s sights.

_If only someone like you was hanging around Vacuo several years back…_

And that’s when it happened. Cinder’s eyes went wide as she sat up straight. Why hadn’t she thought of it earlier? She never used to pass up opportunities like this. She knew she’d gotten sloppy, losing an arm and an eye would do that to anyone, but this was unacceptable. Why couldn’t there be someone like Ruby? Not back in Vacuo, here in Solitas. And why did Ruby have to do it on her own?

Cinder took a long drink of her tea, finishing it off. She had an idea. An absolutely brilliant and devious idea.

_Ruby Rose,_ Cinder thought, hiding the grin creeping behind her mug, _you’re a godsend._

Cinder stood up and went back into the kitchen to rinse out her cup. “I’m not going to drop you off anywhere, Ruby,” she announced. Her word was final, but continued before her mechanic could raise any protest. “We’re going to fly to Zeta. We’re going to find these bastards,” Cinder turned to Ruby, showing her an evil grin, “and we’ll bring them down together.”

It took Ruby several moments to process what Cinder had said to her. “Wait… could you say that again?”

“This ship has been modified to hell and back. Your fault. It would take you a year to teach a replacement mechanic how to run it all, so if I can’t get you to give up your quest for vengeance, I might as well help you.”

Ruby blinked. “What?”

“It’s not difficult to understand. Keep up, Ruby.” Cinder patted her on the shoulder in passing and walked toward the front of the ship. She purposely ignored the other woman quickly following behind her to the bridge. There they found the rest of the crew, plus the Penny robot, working away. Blake and Flynt were trying to find which sensors were broken from the ship systems station, while Neon and Penny were tweaking the misaligned pilot control settings--the result of crashing and Penny's remote computer piloting.

“What’s our status?” Cinder projected her voice across the small bridge.

Neon looked up and finished off a can of energy drink--awake and alert, even after working through the night. “Ready to fire up the engines and return to the skies, Captain.” Noticing that Ruby and Cinder were together, Neon stared suspiciously at their sudden entrance. “Did Ruby convince you to make Penny co-engineer? I already called dibs.”

“I can perform multiple tasks, Neon,” Penny helpfully said.

“As far as I’m concerned,” Cinder waved the comment off while glancing at the robot, “I gave you to Ruby, so do whatever she tells you.”

Neon’s shoulders slouched exaggeratedly. “Aw, man…”

Penny saluted. “Aye, aye, Captain Cinder!”

Cinder smirked at the enthusiastic loyalty but did a double-take. For a second there, she forgot they found her as a piece of machinery in a crashed pirate ship. Was it her friendly smile, or the cute outfit that hid her true form? Cinder glanced away from it, her face hidden by her hair, and rubbed her right palm with her thumb. Or was it because she was saved by it during the crash? She couldn’t remember a time when someone actually reached back…

_Shut up!_ Cinder thought to herself. _It’s an appliance following programming. Get over it._

“Set a course for Zeta,” Cinder ordered.

Neon raised an eyebrow as Flynt and Blake looked at each other.

“Uh… Boss?” Flynt asked. “You want us to go into Atlas territory? To the settlement Ruby says the people who tried to kill us are from?”

“They picked a fight, and I’ll finish it.” Cinder glanced and smiled over her shoulder at Ruby.

Ruby’s disbelief wavered. She was so afraid she’d have to fight alone. But they were all in this together, and together, they could win. A determined smile crossed her lips as she nodded toward her captain, in gratitude.

Less enthusiastic was Blake, whose face drained as she stood up. “We can’t do this. It’s suicide.”

“If you want, you can resign your position once we reach Zeta, Ms. Belladonna.”

Blake glared at Cinder, then toward her girlfriend, knowing who was really behind this.

But Cinder’s word was all the excuse Neon needed to hop in her pilot seat. “Power-up the wings, co-pilot. We’re on our way!”

Cinder stared out the bridge window, her smug grin visible to the world. It felt like she’d been thrown a lifeline. Finally, a direction, a goal, a chance of atonement. Something more than hiding and rotting away in this frozen hell.

They shakily flew up into the cold morning sky, the ship turning and blasted away southward. The journey would be rough, but _Paradise_ would manage to carry them to their destination.

_If I do this right…_ Cinder thought to herself. Well, the potential was endless. Maybe it would even sate the voice that haunted her mind.

Maybe… she could even find a way to live with herself.

* * *

Any normal man would covet the power that came with a governor assignment. Goldsong was no ‘normal’ man. His new position was an insult, a demotion, a sign of his exile to the edge of the empire he once ruled over. ‘Governor’ was a brand of failure.

“I want an explanation!” Governor Goldsong demanded his two subordinates who stood on the other side of his desk. Just because he’d lost his position on the Atlas council, didn’t mean he’d gained a tolerance for incompetence.

They’d come to deliver the disappointing update in his office--the office that was fit for a common paper pusher, not a ruler. His gold plated decor was cramped and condensed around the room, with a full third of his beautiful collection still packed in wooden crates that lined the corners. It was bad enough to outcast him to a settlement, but not giving him enough space for his ornaments was an additional insult. But even with his limited space, Goldsong made sure he displayed his honorable platinum plaque. It was given to all members of the Atlas council when they were first elected. It was placed behind his large chair, as a reminder of his superiority, and what he would inevitably reclaim.

“Operative Cerulean’s team never checked in yesterday,” one of the two soldiers reported. “They had a lead on the salvagers who took the prototype, but they never reported back their findings.”

“Damn!” Goldsong ground his teeth and bit his knuckle. _That bumbling idiot couldn’t handle a simple recovery operation?_ he thought. _Useless! This is why I used to hire Atlas born Specialists, not the settlement trash they’ve saddled me with!_

His phone rang--a call from his secretary. Her desk was just down the hallway instead of a floor down. What good was that? Someone could barge past the little thing if they wanted to!

“The hell is it, Jewel?” Goldsong spat into the receiver.

“Th-There’s a woman here to see you, s-sir,” she responded, far more nervously than usual.

“I’m busy, set her an appointment for next week.”

“Um… sir? She’s a Special Operative. She says her name is Ciel Soleil.”

Goldsong’s finger froze over the call button. He bit his knuckle again, teeth denting the skin. _Do they know? No, that’s not possible. I covered all my tracks._

A few more tense seconds and Goldsong responded, “Send her in, Jewel.” He snapped at his two soldiers to stand behind him, one on either side as a sign of strength. Cerulean couldn’t be by his side since he was MIA, but these two would function in the role. They weren’t Semblance-users, but their Auras were strong and had proven their value while exterminating Grimm, and suppressing local riots.

Goldsong straightened his white and gold suit and made sure his greased blonde hair and mustache were presentable before the door to his office opened.

A shorter woman with a slender athletic build entered. Her skin was a brown complexion, and she had short dark hair that parted down the middle, highlighting a beauty mark in the center of her forehead under a blue military beret. Her personal uniform was a grey-white blouse under a blue overshirt with gold edging. A gold-yellow scarf was tied as a cravat around her neck. She wore blue stockings under a grey skirt, and black elbow-length gloves covered her arms crossed behind her back as she tread across Goldsong's valuable carpet.

Operative Soleil studied the office around her, making a mental note of every object and angle around her. Finally, her serious blue eyes rested on the wall to the side.

“It’s slow,” she said emotionlessly.

“What?” Goldsong asked. He must have misheard her.

“The clock,” Operative Soleil explained. “It isn’t accurate.” She looked down at a watch on her right wrist, double-checking her judgment.

It wasn’t the first time Goldsong had been in contact with Soleil. She was relatively new to their organization, from an Atlesian military family, brought in to clean up a mess a few years back, and had quickly risen through the ranks. Even then, she was an odd one. Completely devoid of the etiquette that Goldsong, even in his current position, demanded. He wasn’t sure if she lacked social awareness or if she was as arrogant as she appeared.

“I’m a busy man, Ms. Soleil. Don’t you have errands to run for your master?”

“That’s why I’m here, Governor Goldsong.” Operative Soleil finally acknowledged him. Her earlier comments about the wall clock were her own personal observations that Goldsong had simply overheard.

He glanced down at a small patch on her sleeve. It wasn’t conspicuous--a dark insignia of a black flower. Nothing any laymen would recognize unless they belonged to the same covert group. The symbol of the _Black Lily_ : the ship where she and the other Specialists under her command were stationed.

Soleil stared at the two soldiers.

Goldsong crossed his arms on the desk, ignoring her implied order for them to leave. “Continue with your message then, Operative.”

“As you know,” Soleil began, unfazed, walking up and standing on attention across the desk, “one of our cargo shuttles was attacked by pirates.”

“I read the report,” Goldsong waved the news off. “You have soldiers and Operatives for that. Don’t complain to me about your people’s sloppy work.”

Soleil ignored the insult like she didn’t even hear it. “The pirate’s ship crashed, and both prototypes were lost.”

“Yes, yes. All in the report. Get on with it, woman!”

Soleil lifted her chin. “Our investigation found the pirate’s base hidden in a hot spring oasis near the Ruinous Zone. They revealed under interrogation that they were paid by an unknown employer in the Atlas government to intercept the cargo shuttle carrying the prototypes.”

Goldsong clamped his jaw shut, trying his best to look uninterested. _Damn it all! Useless pirate scum!_ His guess that she hadn’t known his involvement in the attack had been hopelessly optimistic.

“We also discovered that you sent out your top Specialist to recover the prototypes,” Soleil paused, “ _before_ your office received any report of their theft.”

Goldsong grit his teeth. The Specialist in front of him was sent to give him a scolding for his latest trespass, after all. With knowledge of their organization kept to the top echelons of the Atlas military, the worst consequence he'd face is a tongue lashing. He may only be a governor, but they couldn't arrest him, not without endangering the project. They could still punish him, however, by removing any remaining influence he had over the project, which made him furious.

“Which of my people told you?” Goldsong asked, face flush with anger.

"We intercepted Cerulean's messages before you lost touch with him and his Atlesian Knights. You had him try to recover the prototypes after the pirates crashed."

Soleil paused, waiting for any desperate denial from Goldsong. He may have had a temper, but he would never beg. The leaders of his family had been members of the Atlas council for the last three generations and were above groveling.

“My master, as you have dubbed him,” Soleil continued, “has sent me to find out why. Why have you betrayed his operation, Governor Goldsong?”

Goldsong slammed his hand against the desk. “It is as rightfully mine as it is his! It was my position on the council that got him funding and approval for the Aura reactor and Penny projects.”

Soleil again moved her glare to the two soldiers guarding the governor. “Those are classified terms that members of your staff are not cleared to hear.”

Goldsong felt a vessel pulse on his forehead. “How dare you!” he spat while pointing at her. “All of you profited off my connections. My influence. Then you orchestrate my ousting from the council to this pathetic settlement to get me out of the way so you could hog all the glory! The project would never have happened if I hadn't brought it to the council! I deserve the right to show them the fruits of my labor!”

Soleil nodded, understanding his motivation. "You hired pirates to steal the prototypes so you could take credit for recovering them before bringing them to the council.”

It would have been so simple. After betraying the pirates, he'd heroically bring the android's to the council, showing how far the project had progressed, proving that the others were stalling for time so they could embezzle Atlas's resources. He would regain his reputation, take full control of the project, perhaps even earn back his seat.

If only the pirates and Cerulean had done what they were supposed to!

“It is my right!” Goldsong bellowed. “I was bred to lead. Watts would still be a fail--”

“That name is classified!” Soleil finally showed emotion: pure disdain that Goldsong would dare casually mention that name.

What did it matter? If Watts wanted to come after him, let him. He’d have to send worse than a failed Atlas officer he’d propped up as his second in command. “Next time you see Arthur remind him that he would have faded into obscurity eight years ago if he hadn’t begged me for help.”

Soleil sighed, composing herself. She reached inside a pocket in her uniform and removed three metal marbles. They rolled in a rhythmic motion around her left palm as Goldsong's rant escalated.

“I contributed to the project just as much as the other founding members! I know the other two are stalling to show the council how far the android models have developed so they can get more funding! Watts can’t hide his independent research from the council for--”

A blue spark flashed in Soleil’s hand.

Goldsong blinked. Both from the light and from the splash against his face. He rubbed his eyes to clear his vision, as both men on either side of him slumped to the ground.

They were dying.

Goldsong looked at his sleeve and then felt his face, both splattered with blood. Blood from the holes opened in both men’s throats as they silently gurgled at his feet. They lay still before either had a chance to lift a finger to defend themselves or their master.

“Wh--How…” Goldsong looked up. Soleil hadn’t moved from her spot. She was even still fidgeting with the marbles in her hand… Wait--that wasn’t right. She was now only holding _one_ marble.

Goldsong collapsed against the back of his chair, only now noticing the faint blue shimmer surrounding the operative’s body. Without either of his trained soldiers noticing, she’d activated both her Aura and Semblance. Faster than any of them could blink.

The shock of the moment faded, and cold understanding set in. 

His final miscalculation. Soleil hadn’t been sent to express Watts’s disappointment. This wasn’t the beginning of another executive battle over who could influence the project. This was never about who would or wouldn’t get credit. After all, Watts was no politician. And he was, if anything, brutally pragmatic.

“He… He can’t do this!” Goldsong screamed.

“Sloppy…”

Another spark of light as Soleil activated her Semblance again. The last chrome marble shot forward, aimed right between the governor’s eyes.

A flash of red and then darkness. The platinum plaque behind him was coated in blood and brain fluid as the marble exited the back of Goldsong’s skull with no resistance.

His chair buckled under the collapsing weight, as the third and final body joined the others.

  
  


Ciel looked at her watch. “I could have sworn that took longer,” she mumbled with a frown. After she double-checked that the clock on the wall hadn’t infected her precise timepiece, she shrugged. “Oh well.”

By now, her soldiers would have already begun raiding the governor's offices. They will interrogate the staff, secure any and all information, search through every transcript and document to discover the extent of the leak, and silence it.

Calmly, Ciel turned and walked out of the cramped gaudy office that belonged to the late governor. Yet another sacrifice on the pile, one that had been a long time coming. Regretfully, even incompetent pigs like Goldsong could be a threat to Watts. But that's what Ciel was for. To end those threats.

As far as she was concerned, this fate belonged to anyone who stood between Watts and his vision.

**The End of Part One**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Thank you for reading the introductory arc of Project Penny! I’ll be going on a small hiatus while I plot out Part Two, but it shouldn’t take me long. With our heroes introduced and a status quo begun, stay tuned for the further adventures of Penny and her new friends.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Short hiatus" is apparently a joke I play on myself. Have a couple thousand more words!

Adrenaline pumped in her veins, resonating with her beating heart. The thrill of a challenge where one wrong move would bring shame. Neon pushed herself to the limit, giving everything she had to this one moment. A growl rose from the depths of the throat as the greatest trial once again manifested.

_There!_

Her fingers flew across the controller. She knew the timing and the input, meeting every rapidly approaching--

A devastating slip. Sweaty hands or a crossed circuit in her head that didn’t tell her fingers the right place to go, she’d never know. Either way, Neon had fumbled the middle of the most delicate and precise part of the song.

A red X appeared on the edge of the screen as the game continued, uncaring.

“Shit!” Neon hung her head. Once again, victory eluded her.

S-ranking the boss songs in her rhythm game would take more work than she thought.

“I underestimated you,” Neon admitted, but clenched her controller as a grin spread across her face. She was always ready for an unexpected challenge. Her eyes wide, pupils dilated, and fur on her tail standing up in excitement, Neon restarted the level and faced it head-on.

What better way to relax after one hell of a weekend?

“Hello, my friend, Neon!”

Neon paused the game. She'd lost her flow now and would have to restart. No biggie, though. She looked over her shoulder at the person standing in her cabin’s open doorway.

“Hey, Penny! Thought you were getting worked on.”

“Ruby just finished installing the permanent spine replacement.” Penny turned to show off her back, but she was fully clothed, so there wasn’t any difference as far as Neon could tell. But she was unsure if the android knew that.

The Faunus shrugged and welcomed the robot in.

  
  


This is Neon Katt.

And yes, that is her name.

She stole it, but if the owners ever found out, they never complained.

In three days, Neon had gone from hiding with her best friend as fugitives to plotting sweet, sweet justice on the bastards who had hurt them. A surprising shift in priorities, but one Neon wouldn’t mind embracing.

Her journey had brought her and her ship--Well, technically it was her boss’s ship, but by all rights, it should be Ruby and Neon’s if you thought about it. Ruby had started the remodeling and personally brought Neon on to test her work. _Paradise_ was like their giant flying kid, even if only Neon thought about it that way.

Where was she again?

Right! Zeta. Settlement in the middle of the southern coast of Solitas--right on the edge of Atlas’s territory. _Paradise_ had, somehow, held together after the crash, due to Penny’s quick thinking and the crew’s patchy repairs. Even Neon got a little worried during the last few hours of the flight, but they’d made it. The dockworkers here checked them over, got visibly shaken that they’d flown in the ship’s current state, and hugged each member of the salvager crew out of relief.

Nice people.

Didn’t take long for Cinder to round up a crew to fix up the rest of the ship, with Ruby’s supervision and the captain’s money as motivation, of course. 

_I knew she was holding out on that advance,_ Neon had thought when Cinder paid them upfront.

Back in Neon’s cabin, the morning after their arrival. The snugness of the small room was perpetuated by posters on the wall, strewn around (but clean) laundry, and nicknacks that traveled back and forth between the bed and the desk whenever Neon needed sleep. There was a stuffed toy lizard in there somewhere too, but still plenty of room for two new friends to hang out. Ruby had needed Penny out of the way for a couple minutes while a safety guy checked out the reactor (It would be fine--the main problems were the wings, not the engine). Either way, Penny needed to make herself scarce from that end of the ship. Neon knew it was safer that way. Better to keep out of sight than risk being found by Atlas again. Instead of hiding in the spare cabin, the social girl (her crewmates could take notes) decided to spend time with Neon.

Frankly, the disguise was impeccable. There was nothing suspicious about the current Penny at all. Far less bizarre than most of _Paradise’s_ crew--and Neon would stand by that statement, not realizing that probably made Penny all the more conspicuous.

“I thought I’d check up on you!” Penny said happily. “Do you need me for anything?”

“You’re not a slave, Penny,” Neon said. “No matter how the captain treats you. You’re a member of the crew, same as the rest of us. Most of them just haven't picked up on that yet.”

Penny put a hand to her chin like she was reviewing the situation. “Flynt, Cinder, then Blake. That will probably be the order.” She laughed like it was only a joke, but Neon suspected there was more thought put into that than the android let on.

After she’d finished her analysis, one of the posters above Neon’s desk caught Penny’s eye. “Who are they?” Penny asked, tilting her head in curiosity.

Neon smirked. Ironic (but expected) that Penny didn’t know. “Nebula Glimmer. They’re android idols that came from a distant planet to heal the earth.”

Penny looked skeptical.

“It’s all kayfabe, man.”

“Oooooh.” Penny nodded, understanding.

“It adds drama to the albums, especially with the rival groups,” Neon explained while nodding to the game, still running on her desk. “They’re getting pretty popular. I bought this ‘cause it has some of their songs.”

One of which came with a level Neon couldn’t beat. She frowned slightly as she stared at the pause menu of her game.

Then she turned and stared at Penny.

Then back to the screen. The S-rank had alluded her mortal abilities, but what about--

“Heeeey, Penny?” Neon turned back to her dear good wonderful friend. “You’re a robot, right?” 

“Correct!” Penny smiled like a tutor happy their student guessed right on a flashcard.

“Idea!” Neon whispered to herself as her tail swished back and forth in excitement.

  
  


“Yes. _Yes._ **_YES!!!_ ** _”_

Neon bounced as she stood behind Penny. Every digital light summoned by the rhythm game’s music was expertly met as it raced across the screen. Penny’s mechanical and deliberate hands shot across the controller. Near emotionless, she tracked her targets and clicked the buttons in perfect sequence.

_“Show Time! Shout your love until the stars understand!”_ Neon cheered lyrics with the music.

A few short meters away, walking in the hall past the room to investigate the source of all the noise, Blake glanced inside. She left as quickly as she had poked her head in, rolling her eyes and grumbling something under her breath about “not knowing which one was worse.”

The fast-paced idol music rose, and Penny accelerated to meet it. Her inhuman skill breezed through the challenge as all her mechanical attention was focused on her task. Penny started bobbing along with the music, mimicking Neon's excitement as she reached the final stretch. With computer-powered reaction time that thought at near light speed, she aced the combination, finishing the level with a triumphant button click.

An S-rank flashed on the screen with an explosion of digital confetti.

Neon grabbed Penny by the shoulders and started shaking her. “You did it!”

Penny nodded. “As I said, my model is equipped for any unexpected scenario.”

Neon nodded in agreement, still amazed by the blur of movement that had graced her game controller.

That speed.

That impeccable timing!

Neon spun Penny around and beamed with curious excitement. “What else can you do?”

**Part Two: Hell-bent**

A lot had happened to Flynt during the last few days he would have avoided if possible. Contending for the worst, however, was his boss dragging him to the gutter-end of a settlement and inside an android themed sex shop. Among the various accessories and latex constructed add-ons, there were literally a dozen ways Flynt could think of that would make the room he was in less gross. A couple more lights. You know, to see. Flynt had to double-check that he’d remembered to remove his sunglasses multiple times. He didn’t understand or agree with the idea that less light made things more erotic. The store owner could also take down old advertisements before putting up new ones. There were multiple surfaces that no longer resembled walls, just old ink-blotted collages of smut.

Cinder stood in the front at the counter. She’d started wearing a black and gold-lined half cape over her cybernetic arm whenever she left the ship. Her arm was potentially too noticeable if they were going to be in the shadows, she had said earlier that morning.

_In the shadows,_ Flynt thought to himself. What a joke. He’d joined up with Cinder to avoid criminal work like this. The irony made his head hurt. It was like he was predestined to keep ending up in positions he wanted to avoid. He started to recall the writings of old philosophers on fatality that were pretty common after The Calamity two hundred years ago. Grimm swarmed the world for the first time, so things rightfully looked hopeless before civilization rebuilt itself. The surviving scholars of the time wrote about the inherent futility of humanity’s quest for progress and survival. Maybe those depressing assholes were right. After all, God, or The Brothers, or The Universe (whoever or whatever was really out there) had made it a hobby to derail his and everyone he loved lives whenever things finally looked maintainable.

His train of thought was snapped when the shop’s keeper came out of the backroom. He was a thin man, just skin clinging to bone and tendon under a loose tank top.

“Welcome,” he said through a cough, straightening a bandana on his head that read “Laz” on it. “How can I help you, fine people?”

Flynt wondered if Laz was his name or a brand he liked.

"I'm looking for information about android models," Cinder said as she glanced around. She put on the air of someone more important than their surroundings but wanted info they wouldn't risk finding through official channels. "My employer is considering exploring some alternative activity with your products.”

_One way of putting it,_ Flynt thought. Hide your suspicious activity with a different suspicious activity. That way your informant doesn't realize what you’re really after. Aside from the military, there were several different professions that androids were in development for, one of which was naturally the sex trade. And since Cinder couldn’t go up and ask questions at the nearest military recruitment office, here they were.

"Well," Laz whipped his nose, sensing a profitable sell, "I can tell you anything about our merchandise and dash _any_ concerns you may have."

Cinder inspected one of the models dressed in a leather bunny suit. After meeting PENNY, these ones looked like plastic manikins. "My employer heard a rumor that bots made with a hybrid of cybernetic medical tech and android tech were more... realistic."

Laz shrugged. “If your boss wants realism, he’s better off rounding up actual people. What we deal is a step _beyond_ the real.”

Cinder grinned. “Quite the pitch. I should clarify. He heard that they were more… intense.”

“A couple of high-end, unique models tried to go the hybrid route, but they never cracked how to blend it efficiently, or affordably, to justify producing a line of them. But any rumors about those are probably about gimmicks not worth your time.”

“I doubt no east-coaster has tried,” Cinder said. “Their prosthetic engineering culture is built on one-upping Atlas.”

Laz shrugged and leaned on the counter. “Out there, they’re more interested in designing transforming weapon arms than anything in our line of work.”

“Not necessarily!” a new voice perked up.

Laz glanced over his shoulder, and Cinder looked with him. In the backroom, hunched next to a thick monitor, was another man. Same face as Laz, probably a brother or cousin, but heavyset and with long straight hair.

“They make hybrid tech?” Cinder asked.

“There are some rumors on message boards in the network,” the other man said.

“Don’t tell people about your conspiracies again, Roc,” Laz croaked out, glaring at him for bringing up products they didn’t sell.

Roc, the one at the monitor, ignored him and put a mint candy in his mouth. “Three separate engineers started laying down the foundations that would develop the type of tech you speak of. And they all disappeared.”

Cinder raised an eyebrow.

“One vanished without a trace. Another died, but we suspect there wasn’t a body found. The third moved to Vale out of nowhere, but never got off her airship. All three cases are highly suspicious.” Roc chuckled to himself, glad to share this network mystery with others.

Cinder nodded, understanding the subtext. “A certain someone doesn’t like it when people impede on their android monopoly?”

Atlas's cybernetic export was already threatened by the east-coasters. It made sense they would want to ensure the rising android business didn't go the same way. Unless-- 

Flynt thought of another possibility, and sadly realized it was the lead his captain was looking for.

Roc shrugged innocently. “Just rumors, lady. I only sell bots on the net. What do I know?”

Cinder waved it off, turning to Laz with a defeated look that implied he was right to warn her that pursuing hybrids was a waste of time. “Doesn’t matter. The amount my employer can spend on this project without causing attention isn’t unlimited, but the more models he can get his hands on for it, the better. I don’t see why your stock wouldn’t do.”

“We offer trial runs,” Laz added. “For a fee, of course.”

“I’ll see what he says to that,” Cinder said. “We’ll be in touch.”

She turned to go, but Laz called out to her. "You sure you don’t want a model for personal use?” He pushed a catalog toward her on the counter. “Here’s some attractive male options. And for a few thousand extra lien, we throw in an adjusted emotional support program.”

“Adjusted?” Flynt asked, but regretted it as the words left his lips.

“Upgrade to a full companion simulation, not just a fuck body.”

_Fuck buddy,_ Flynt thought, _the phrase is_ \--and then realized that for these people it wasn’t.

Flynt hoped and was pretty sure he wasn't a prude. He'd messed around a lot back in college, but as varied as they were, Flynt preferred his partners to be actual people. He didn't trust something built in a garage you had to worry could have been given a "test-run" by a bored warehouse worker.

After gently turning the offer down, Cinder and Flynt left, and they finally got a breath of outside air. They left the pleasure-district and turned onto a road that ran parallel to Zeta’s massive but empty canal. The city-settlement was bisected by sheer concrete walls with half-melted ice that dripped and puddled at the bottom. The remnant of a construction project, long abandoned because transporting cargo via airship turned out to be more efficient than digging all the way from the coast to Mantle. With business decisions like that, it wasn’t any wonder the corporation sponsoring the settlement went under, forcing the city to submit to Atlas so the people could survive.

Cinder and Flynt followed the scar in the earth toward the dam that separated the canal from the sea and airship port. “You catch that?” Cinder asked. She kept her voice low and out of the ears of passing settlers. “We were right about Atlas recruiting engineers if it’s prominent enough for message forums to pick up on it.”

Flynt shrugged. “Could also be a coincidence.”

“There’s a threshold where coincidences stop being random.”

“What are you going to do?” Flynt asked. “These people are good at covering their trail.”

“If one lead fails, I’ll find another,” Cinder said. As soon as they landed in Zeta yesterday to investigate the governor, they found out that he and his entire staff had been uprooted and charged with corruption. Officially, he'd been replaced by a temporary acting governor until the situation could be stabilized. The citizens honestly didn’t seem to care. One pompous corrupt Atlesian official was the same as any other, but the timing was too suspect. The whole thing screamed cover-up and had forced Cinder’s mission to find this “Black Lily” organization to an abrupt halt before it ever began.

“We have PENNY,” Cinder said. “They had to design her somehow, and if we find anyone who worked on her, we find Black Lily.”

“You say that like it will be easy. Or safe.” He missed when this job was just doing a crew’s worth of work on a souped-up cargo ship. He hadn’t signed up for this new development.

Cinder was unfazed. “It’s a lead, and I intend to see where it takes me.”

Flynt frowned. This determination rubbed him the wrong way. “What makes you think you can take on--” he paused, almost saying “a military conspiracy” out loud. Even he was getting anxious about being found by a Specialist again, so he just finished his sentence with, “--them.”

“You think it's the first time I’ve taken down a syndicate?” Cinder asked with almost a smile.

“I can’t tell if you’re joking, boss. And that scares me.”

“Ever hear of the Vacuo Razor Hearts?”

“Yeah? That big criminal organization that collapsed a year and a half, maybe two years back?” He’d read about them once or twice. A strange and highly dangerous gang made up of loyal zealots. Flynt hadn’t heard about them while they were active but was relieved all the same that their members had been arrested. The world was a safer place without those maniacs.

Cinder shrugged. “Who do you think did it?” she asked wordlessly and with wild implications.

“We have a good team,” Cinder continued after a pause to let her wordless boast set in. “I believe in them. Ruby’s not the person she used to be, so she’ll need all the help she can get.”

_I’ve ended up on a ship full of crazy people,_ Flynt thought as he breathed in the cold, smoky air of the city. Ex-criminals, ex-White Fang, whatever Cinder used to be that was probably worse than either of those, and now an experimental robot with a stolen soul had joined the group. In what world was Neon, the ex-smuggler, the normal one he could relate to? But she was just as gung-ho to go on this suicide mission as Ruby and Cinder. And with good reason. Losing your Aura, Flynt couldn’t imagine that. He discovered his Semblance when he was older, but his Aura had unlocked when he was just a kid. It had been with him practically his whole life. The residual effects of the enhanced senses and strength lingered even when it was deactivated. Without that, the world would be muted, lesser. The thought of waking up every day to a washed-out reality made him shutter.

Just because those two had reasons didn’t mean his employer had to enable them though. And for what? What did Cinder get out of this mission? A thrill? Reliving glory days?

What about him? What about Flynt’s needs? His job? Cinder’s crew was supposed to be the safe, profitable, and most importantly, _stable_ option.

“The close call at Hailstone wasn't enough?” Flynt asked with a tone snappier than he’d wanted with his boss. “I didn’t sign up with you to run around Solitas with a target on my back.”

“I’ll tell you what I told Belladonna,” Cinder said as if his question was an annoying gnat to swat away. “If you don’t like this, then get off. But you’ll notice she hasn’t gone anywhere.”

“I don’t have a girlfriend on the crew. It would be easy for me to walk away.”

“Last time I checked,” Cinder shot him a glare, “you came to me, begging for a job. I’m the only legal outfit who will hire and pay Freelancer rates to someone who isn’t licensed with the guild. Because I’m nice.”

Flynt clenched his teeth and had to force himself to not gulp from her one-eyed stare. The message was clear: Talking back was defiance, and Cinder, Flynt was learning, wouldn’t tolerate that.

After her subordinate didn’t respond, Cinder took it as her win and walked ahead.

“Come on!” she barked behind her as she slumped her shoulders and eyed the people on the road around them like they were rotting garbage. “Let’s get back to _Paradise._ I hate crowds.”


	7. Chapter 7

Flynt’s current home was _Paradise_ , a tall, torpedo-shaped ship, fairly dubbed _Orca_ -class, that had four wings that bent diagonally back at the sides in a squished X-shape. The front ramp that led into the lower deck was still singed from the Specialist's explosive death, and Flynt didn’t like to look directly at it. Underneath, however, the damaged plating from the subsequent crash was being readily replaced by Cinder’s hired repair crew.

For now, Flynt and his crewmates were grounded, but it was better to be stuck inside a city's walls, then outside in Grimm territory.

During their flight to Zeta, Flynt had helped cover the Atlas paraphernalia they'd looted from the pirates, and removed any emblems that hinted at their original owners. If a random dock worker somehow got through the locked shutter and into the second cargo bay, they wouldn't suspect anything from the tarp-covered armor plating or inconspicuous crates.

As they returned to their ship, Flynt and Cinder moved up to the top deck. The bridge was at the front, ahead of the crew’s quarters, and the reactor bay and Ruby’s workshop was at the back, with the living space where the stairs came up to, right in the middle.

Cinder walked ahead and took off her half cape. She stretched her mechanical claws and rolled her shoulders, stiff from staying under the loose cover.

Flynt had meant to split off from her and head back to his room when he spotted Neon and Penny sitting at the booth table. They had a massive card tower between them. Neon stared at it, wide-eyed, as Penny surgically placed another layer at the top--halfway through a second deck, by the looks of it.

“What are you two doing?” Cinder frowned in their direction.

Neon turned and saluted. “Testing our new crewmate’s parameters. _Sir!_ ”

 _We’re really going with that, huh?_ Flynt thought. Every day that passed, they were getting weaker and weaker to Neon’s insistence that the machine was a member of the crew. If he was in a better mood, he might have made bets on how long it would take Neon to convince their boss to give the android a salary.

Cinder sighed but let the games and implications of Neon’s words slide. “Where’s Ruby?”

Penny perked up from her tower assignment--another level complete. “She was conversing with the repair crew when I left her, but they went back outside a while ago.” The android looked around like she was trying to spot Ruby, even glancing behind the back of the booth, just in case.

Marching herself to the wall, Cinder punched the intercom button. “Ruby, get up here!”

Nothing responded.

“Intercom’s still broken, boss,” Flynt added.

“Yeah, I know…” Cinder groaned, annoyed and slightly embarrassed by her lapse in memory. She inhaled deeply before bellowing out through the echoing length of the ship. _“RUBY!”_

“Wow,” Penny marveled at the woman’s lungs.

Uncovering his ears, Flynt was about to glare at his employer when a vent near his feet flipped open. Out rolled Ruby, her back on a mechanics creeper that shot out from the base of the wall under her. She sat up, tools in her arms, and looked around. "What's up?"

“We found a lead,” Cinder said as she turned to her. “Atlas has been disappearing engineers who are developing hybrid androids. With what you’ve told us about Black Lily, they’ve probably either been recruited or kidnapped.”

Ruby nodded. “Makes sense. Penny would be a big project, and they couldn’t risk anyone working on her wandering around and spilling secrets.”

As they discussed the rumor’s details and Cinder’s day out, Flynt leaned down and looked inside the vent Ruby had emerged from. How long had that even been there?

“So we’ll start by looking into any missing or suspiciously dead scientists. Focusing on ones that researched the same technology Atlas used to make Penny,” Ruby said, holstering her tools.

“Cybernetic prosthetics, military-grade android tech, Aura weaponry,” Cinder listed out loud. “That last one will be tricky.”

“Other than the mustached bastard…” Ruby started standing with difficulty. Neon moved to get up and help, but Ruby waved her off and stabilized herself on her leg just fine. "...there used to be a guy who worked on Aura-tech for the Atlesian military. Synthetic Aura, I think it was? Weiss investigated him for her job a few years back after he died in a Grimm attack. She never said what she and Velvet needed the information for, though. Penny's Aura is the real deal, but that guy might have been part of the mustache's group."

 _You need something better to call him than “mustache,”_ Flynt thought. But discovering his identity would be part of their investigation. 

“Maybe you should bring Weiss in on this,” Flynt suggested to Ruby. If someone trustworthy could help them, maybe they could ease their mission away from the suicidal end of the spectrum.

“No!” Ruby jerked her head at him. She cleared her throat, trying to pass her tone off like a voice crack. “The fewer people we involve, the better, and who knows what she would do if I let her know where I really was.”

Cinder nodded. “We’ll be fine on our own during the investigation phase.” she then addressed Penny. “Is there any tech you’re made out of that we’re missing?”

Penny put a hand to her chin and thought about it. “The data on my construction is limited. I don’t have the details on the Aura research or how it interacts with my processor.”

Neon frowned. “I forgot that Atlas scientists found a way to quantify something we all assumed was supernatural. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Penny said.

“Not what I meant.”

“Wait,” Flynt turned to the android, “Your AI is connected to your Aura?”

“It’s powered by it,” Penny said. “Like all my functions, and I have to control it after all.”

"It's just... it might explain how you can..." Not knowing the words, Flynt came out and said what had been bothering him the last few days. "I'm not the only one who thinks she can actually think, right?"

“How do you mean?” Cinder asked.

“It’s a common belief that Aura is a reflection of the soul. Some even claim it _is_ the soul.”

Neon snorted down a laugh.

“What?”

“Thanks for suggesting me and Ruby don’t have souls.” Neon made a vacant stare and groaned like a zombie.

“Not a literal so--” He glanced between them both, embarrassed but also annoyed they were making fun of him for his lack of tact. Even Ruby was getting a kick out of his momentary squirming. “It’s an outdated frame of thought, anyway. There have been academic wars over this, you know? Once the Kingdoms were established, the schools shifted toward a paradigm where the mind and Aura were separate forces that interact. If that’s true, then Penny’s Aura can interact with Penny’s mind… or processor, whatever, the same way an Aura affects a human’s. I’m curious if that has anything to do with her realistic personality. Maybe something carried over from the previous… owner.”

It was a pointless tangent. None of them had the expertise to speculate about this stuff. But Flynt was sure there was something more going on with this android.

Ruby groaned and knocked Neon on the head. “You made him philosophize again.”

“I’m still weighing whether it’s cute or annoying.” Neon studied him like it would take more data to reach her conclusion.

“You mentioned a processor, Penny,” Cinder interrupted to get them all back on track. “How smart are you?”

Penny turned and reported, “Comparable to the TSSC-X.”

Ruby’s eyes widened, and Flynt whistled. Impressive.

Neon looked between them and Penny. “OK… anyone gonna tell me if that’s good or not?”

A glance between Flynt and Ruby, and they knew they were both thinking the same thing. The TSSCs were the type of tech they used in CCTS and Archive Towers. Was Aura-tech the secret to condensing a literal supercomputer into the head of a mobile android? Maybe there wasn’t a spiritual solution to how Penny’s AI worked after all.

Cinder shrugged. “I’ll pretend I know what that is,” she said as she started pacing around the room. She had an entire morning’s worth of strategies and was deciding the best path to move forward with them. "If we collected a list of potential developers," she said to Penny, "would you be able to access the network and find any digital footprints?" Any sign of them that we can use to track them down?"

Penny’s eyes flashed green. _Judgement Mode_ , Neon had called it when she explained it to him the other day, which now made much more sense if she was using a TSSC-X to make impromptu decisions. The android turned to the boss and said, “Yes. Making a search algorithm should take no time at all!”

Ruby hugged her from behind. “You’re the best, Penny.”

Cinder made a sharp grin. Her plan was back on the rails after yesterday’s delay.

Flynt frowned. He adjusted his sunglasses to hide his displeasure, but a moment too late to stop Neon from spotting it. She eyed his grimace as he tried to cover a neutral face over it.

A new voice appeared at the edge of the hall. “Putting your operation in the hands of a member of the enemy sounds like a good plan,” Blake spoke up with biting sarcasm.

Ruby turned herself and the top half of the embraced Penny toward her girlfriend. “How can you call this face the enemy!” she said and squished Penny’s cheeks into a smile.

“They probably built her that way on purpose,” Blake responded, unaffected.

Ruby patted the robot’s head. “Don’t worry, big sis will protect you.”

“Ruby…” Blake sighed. ‘I love you. I’d do _anything_ for you, but your usual mechanic obsessions don’t usually include intelligent Atlesian military hardware.”

“And software,” Penny added.

Blake’s slitted eyes would have frozen the air between her and the booth table if they had that ability.

“You think Penny’s a spy?” Flynt spoke up. Hopefully, getting the suspicion out in the open would prevent a nastier argument later. He had siblings. He knew how disagreements like this went down.

“Could be,” Blake shrugged. “I wouldn’t let her wander around, that’s for sure.”

“If Atlas had a way to override it,” Cinder said to cut the head off that train of thought, “they would have done it back at Hailstone. Somehow, Ruby reprogrammed the damn thing.”

“I survived a ship crash, and during repairs, Ruby reset my processor,” Penny recapped.

“Besides, Atlas doesn’t use override tech anymore. Not since they lost control of their fleet back at the Battle of Beacon.”

“Don’t patronize me about Beacon,” Blake said, her glare now thrown at her employer.

Flynt had forgotten about that. The fact that one of his co-workers was literally there, helping the White Fang take control of Beacon Tower managed to slip his mind. It was a far away, chaos-inducing event, so it was hard to imagine it being helmed by real people.

Ruby walked up to her girlfriend and kissed her on the cheek. “Deal with her for me, Blake? Babe?”

Blake tried to defy Ruby’s puppy dog eyes, but had to give in. “For now…”

Flynt gave a quiet sigh of relief. He hated conflict as much as he hated this “Take Down the Atlesian Military” plan, but he sensed Blake had more apprehension toward Cinder embracing Ruby’s vendetta than he was capable of.

“Whatever,” Blake sighed, and pretended it wasn’t a big deal. “Sorry, Ruby, but the reason I came down here was to tell you the screens on the bridge are all blacked out again.”

“I know about that. That’s on my list! Probably get to it tomorrow. Right now, I gotta get back in the vents before we all die of carbon monoxide poisoning.”

Blake glanced down at the opening in the wall. “We had a vent there?”

“As of yesterday, we did.” Ruby brought up her blowtorch and goggles and headed back to the whole. “Wish me luck!”

As Blake slunk off into the kitchen, she gave Penny a wide berth as it finished the last layer of the card tower, stood up, and skipped over to the boss.

“Should we start planning? Your room or mine?” Penny asked.

“The bridge, or… actually, Ruby has a computer in her workshop. Guess she won’t mind us using that for this.”

“All good!” Ruby called over as she roughly lowered her back onto the creep.

Flynt glanced down at her. “You want some help?”

“No, I’m fine,” Ruby said as she rolled most of her body into the wall. “I like to keep busy.”

And with one smooth push and a vent-cover falling back into place, she was gone.

 _You’re not the only one, you know,_ Flynt thought.

Tired from walking around a settlement all morning and dealing with his crewmates’ scheming, Flynt headed straight to his room. Luckily the crew was small enough that no one had to share bunks, except for Ruby and Blake, who opted into that. As for Flynt, he enjoyed the privacy. Admittingly, it was a step up from the shared dorm room back at school before the career change to salvaging happened.

Before he could close the door behind him, a rogue Neon mysteriously appeared.

The Faunus standing in the doorway, having sneakily followed him all the way down the hall. She looked up at him, their bodies nearly pressed against each other as they stared at each other--face to much shorter face.

“Personal space, please,” Neon said, waving him off.

Flynt rolled his eyes, giving her a minor smirk, and stepped back into his room. He sat at the small desk, leaving the door open for her.

Neon inspected the room, searching for any change since the last time she’d barged her way in here. It was unimpressive, just the way he planned. His bed was neatly made, an impersonal alarm clock sat on the desk next to books with titles that forced any laymen to glance over them out of boredom. He wasn't a minimalist by any means, he just didn't feel the need to advertise.

“Get a personality, Kingdom Boy,” Neon teased.

Flynt hid a smile as he secretly eyed the closet which held the one personal item he’d brought with him hidden in its trumpet case.

“What’s eating at you?” Neon asked. She’d looped back to the door and leaned against it as her long tail swayed behind her legs.

Flynt took off his sunglasses and looked at her. “You realize this is suicide, right?”

“Oh, is that all?” Neon laughed. “I thought it was something serious.”

“Neon…” He sighed. Why was she here? Was she seriously trying to dissuade his concerns about this? At least Cinder didn’t pretend to care about his feelings. “There has to be better people for this kind of job out there.”

Neon shrugged, her mouth twisting as she could no longer hide her irritation. “I don’t see a queue. If we don’t do something, no one else will.”

“It’s not your job. What gives you the right?”

“They did. When they ripped out my Aura!” Neon snapped. Gritting her teeth, Flynt had never noticed how sharp they were. “I have _every_ right to bring them to justice.”

Flynt collected himself after a moment of intimidation and glanced away. “It didn’t look like Ruby was looking for justice when she almost beat that Specialist to death.”

“What’s wrong, Flynt. You don’t like going after your own people?” It was said like she was taunting him.

“It’s not--” Flynt rubbed his temple. Atlas hadn’t been his home for a while, let’s be real. “I have better things to worry about than wondering when I’ll get killed because the rest of you decided to play heroes.”

Now a Faunus’s glare was fixed on him. “It’s not a game. And if you knew Ruby, you’d know that she cares about a hell of a lot more than just herself. If we can do something to stop Black Lily, we have to try. If we don’t at least give it a shot, then anything else they do is on us.”

Flynt ignored her moral condemnation, deflected to a more pressing issue. “If it isn’t a game, then why are you fine with Cinder treating your mission like a hobby.”

“I’ll take any help I can get.”

“Is that what this is about? You’re trying to recruit me to your cause. Make sure I stick around and keep the ship in tiptop shape while the rest try to save the world?”

“I want you around because you’re helpful!”

“I get paid for that. I don’t get paid for treason.”

Neon frowned. Her anger was an air of sadness to it now. As if he’d insulted himself. “You’re not a mercenary, Flynt.”

“That’s where you’re dead wrong. I’m here for the money. That’s all.”

Neon stared at him--A moment of confusion before she glanced away.

“What?”

“I thought you were better than that,” Neon mumbled.

Flynt sat up and stared at her. Did she… Could it be she wanted him around because she admired him? That she wanted him along because she recognized something in him that could legitimize their quest? Had he just cracked whatever form of faith she had in him?

If he had, it was the right thing to do. He didn’t want anyone to look up to him. He’d tried so hard not to disappoint anyone with a false image. Always live up to your accomplishments, or downplay them when that wasn’t possible.

Well,” Neon sighed, her mood shift to faux indifference could have given him whiplash. “I tried. No point trying to reason with spoiled Kingdom trash.”

She left--leaving the door open out of willing forgetfulness or spite. 

Flynt exhaled and put his head in his hands. “Well… way to go.” He grumbled miserably.

To be honest, he liked this job more than he’d expected. Cinder suspicious nature aside, she was probably a better boss because she had no idea what she was doing, so she gave her crew some slack. Neon was fun to be around. Blake was a welcome force of sanity. And even if he didn’t know Ruby well, she seemed alright when she wasn’t caving in skulls. Skulls that belonged to people trying to kill them all, but… He’d planned to live his life “doing no harm,” so that had been hard to watch.

He wanted to know them more. To understand what they saw in Ruby that inspired such fierce loyalty. What they saw in Cinder, despite the cold shoulder she gave them all. 

But he wasn’t here for any of that. He wasn’t even here for himself.

He remembered the reason as vividly as if he’d lived through it hours ago…

Many small celebrations took place in the bar that night a year and a half ago. A group of rowdy medical school students was one of them. Happy to be done with their semester, they were finally let and letting loose at the start of their winter break.

It marked a year of Flynt’s journey into his medical training. It had taken up his life for a long time, and he was finally progressing toward his eventual career. After his family's Dust shop was shut down, and his brother had to take on a dangerous job to help support them, Flynt had managed to earn a scholarship. All their turmoil hadn’t been for nothing, after all. In three years, he would graduate--faster than any other student at the table with him. He’d have a job lined up for him, and he would finally pay back his parents for supporting him this far. Hell, if he was lucky enough, he might even help his sister get into a university of her own. Paying the success forward. 

Where he’d end up in less than a year was unimaginable to him as he sat with the others ordering their drinks. For _that_ night, however, Flynt had made it. He’d make his family proud to call him one of their own.

For a few more minutes, the worst was behind him, and he could let loose.

If Flynt remembered that small gathering correctly, it was two of the guys and four of the women from his dorm, all from the same program. He knew most of them, even good friends with some. Looking back, it would take him a while to remember any of their names.

Two of the girls were trying to hit on the waiter, attempting to learn when he got off work, or, at the very least, his phone number to humor them. The night was young, and there was no way this cutie’s shift lasted longer than they were going to stay up bar and club hopping.

The waiter professionally refused their advances, not even a hint of flattery or temptation toward their offer. Because there weren't any. Flynt's two friends didn’t have a sense for these things, apparently.

Flynt caught his eye. With a wink and a nod, he gave the waiter the out he needed.

The waiter softly smiled, pulled out a blank paper, and wrote something down.

Both women harassing him looked on excitedly--then despaired as the waiter walked around the table past them, and handed the slip of paper to a nonchalant, but expectant, Flynt.

Once the waiter left with all their drink orders, Flynt flaunted it in front of his friends. He’d meant it as a way to rile up his group and give the poor guy an out, but the number didn't look random. Maybe he’d ditch his friends earlier than planned tonight.

When asked how he does it, Flynt just shrugged and told them, “I don’t act desperate,” much to the group's delighted outrage.

As they waited for their orders, Flynt checked his Scroll for any messages. He was surprised to find several had been sent to him during the last hour or two. He might as well read them. It would be another minute or two before their hunk of a waiter returned, and Flynt could subtly double-check his offer was genuine.

Flynt pulled up the first message.

_“This is Corporal Onyx from the Atlas Military Recruitment Center. We’ve heard you’ve developed a unique class of Semblance. Have you considered--”_

Flynt deleted the message. It was the same thing every week--sometimes as often as every other day. If it wasn’t the Atlesian Military, it was a Freelancer trainer offering him an apprenticeship in Vale. As if he had the money to move to Vale. Imagine what he could do with that.

When Flynt’s Semblance became public information, groups who looked into those records--including scams and con-artists--clambered for a piece of him. If only the schools he’d applied to had treated him with the same fervor.

Aside from the inherent inconvenience, none of it affected him or his career path. The newly developed superpower was… an interesting change in his personal life, but nothing he would use for anything more important than finishing chores in less time.

The next message was from his sister. She’d sent it after trying to call him.

Flynt frowned. He had only talked to her yesterday--she’d called to congratulate him for passing his finals.

 _“Call me back,”_ her message read.

Then Flynt saw that she’d tried to call him not once, but four times.

Flynt throat suddenly felt very dry. He quickly excused himself from the table as he remembered his mom's old heart problems, or what he'd heard about his father's recent car accident. Had either been more serious than believed? Or was it something new?

Retreating into an isolated corner by the bathrooms, Flynt made the call.

He’d hesitated at the last moment. Like, he could sense what was about to happen. Sense what would become real as soon as he spoke to her.

His sister, Spark, picked up before a single ring went through.

Flynt asked what had happened.

Spark told him. Her voice was angry--the way she always sounded angry when she was holding back tears, but she told him what had happened, and what hospital she was calling from.

Flynt froze. Unable to answer her. In an instant, his entire world, all his past struggles, and future accomplishments had all been erased.

At that moment, everything Flynt had struggled for, had amounted to zero.

Almost a year and a half later, and Flynt was sitting at a small desk inside _Paradise_. Gone was his academic and medical training. Gone was his opportunity. Gone was the carefully earned version of himself he wanted to become.

And it was falling apart all over again as his colleagues plunged headfirst into insanity.

At the very least, the universe had graced him by imploding his new life in slow motion this time.

Flynt had never wanted to be a mercenary. Even in school, the future doctor’s salary was a neat bonus. Something he could use to help out the family.

What Flynt had really wanted was to help people.

To use the steady hands he’d been born with to make the world a better place. One patient at a time. One life at a time.

It was a lovely dream.

But… as was painfully apparent… the universe had other plans for him. He couldn’t afford to have ideals. No dream for a better life for him or his family was allowed. And now, even the role of the selfish mercenary was being robbed from him. He had worked his ass off to make Cinder’s infant salvaging business as productive and profitable as possible.

If his crew was going to abandon his needs, then they were of no use to him anymore. If Cinder, Ruby, and Neon got in his way, he’d find another.

With a resigned sigh, Flynt lazily stared up at the ceiling of what he knew would very soon no longer be his home, and hoped the next one would last longer.


	8. Chapter 8

Every day Neon had to put on a smile.

Being a conscious effort didn't make the smile any less genuine. Neon was as happy and carefree as a Faunus could get. Her uncle taught her to always be herself, to flaunt it, and the more uncomfortable people were, the better. So she did. Happiness was one of the few things no one could take from her, and she wouldn’t give it up for the world.

Once the smile was applied, Neon moved on to the rest of her morning routine. Finish waking up with some basic stretches, skip down the hall to the showers, chug an energy drink with breakfast, toss the can over her shoulder, and, just like the good old days, sink it in the trash.

Slowly getting her mojo back, one habit at a time.

Later, she checked on how the ship’s repairs were going--making sure the workers got all the memos about the extent of Ruby’s modifications. Neon flirted with the crew leader. He was married, but before Neon could find out if that was a deal-breaker or not, she got distracted by a call from her captain, so it didn’t matter. Neon wasn’t very interested anyway, just burning time by being a tease.

Continuing the day, Neon heated up lunch in the microwave (frozen burrito), ate it, and finished it off with a plastic cup of crushed ice, which she chewed on as she marched down to Ruby's workshop to see where her favorite shut-in had been all day.

After fixing the bridge screens, Ruby was using her downtime to work on some personal projects. Currently, that meant taking apart and studying the 3D camera tech they'd salvaged from the pirates. Ruby was messing with a headset that she was using to look at invisible holograms on her table. The augmented reality image was interactive via a sensor riddled glove she'd rigged together, Neon assumed. She couldn’t perceive them with her non technologically advanced sight. Too focused on her new toy, Ruby hadn't seen Neon enter the room, even out of the edges of her fancy new goggles.

Blake was sitting in the corner, next to the medical supply cabinets, halfway through what looked to be an espionage thriller this time. By Neon’s count, Blake had about six or seven reading spots around the ship. Ruby’s workshop was one of the rarer ones, but it was sweet seeing them together like this.

The other cat Faunus was the ship’s Freelancer. Ha! Right now, she was more like the ship’s freeloader. Yeah, she killed Grimm, an invaluable service, and was a good friend, but when it came to repairs, long term docking, or even business relations, she didn’t have much to really do. Ruby had told Neon that Blake had a hard time keeping a job until the Freelancer guild was established several years ago. But if Neon had to do anything other than fly, she probably would self destruct, so she understood having limited talents.

Neon hadn’t gauged exactly how pissed Blake was about Ruby convincing Cinder to go after Black Lily yet. But Neon didn’t even know how she felt about it, honestly, or if they would even pick up on a trail after their lead with the governor went cold. But the determination Neon saw in her captain, that sinister yet inspiring ambition to rise against a challenge, filled her with confidence. Neon had seen that attitude before, not just in herself. Her theory that the captain had a shady criminal past was practically confirmed at this point, and Neon guessed from the accent she’d operated in West Sanus. She’d nail it down eventually.

Blake glanced up at Neon and the cup. “We’re literally in the tundra,” she reminded her for the hundredth time since they’d met. It was their thing.

Neon responded by picking up two ice cubes and chomped on them. Her sharp, yet strong, teeth crushed and pulverized the cold chunks of frozen water. Yum!

Ruby removed her headset at the sound of conversation, revealing some dark bags under her eyes.

“Yikes, girl,” Neon said. “You’ve been wearing that thing too much.”

Ruby smiled but pushed the concern off her back like a duck to water. “There’s some fascinating AR simulations here. It’s probably what they’re using in their new mechs and Penny’s ocular sensors. I can’t think of anything we’d use it for, but it’s super-advanced.”

Blake stood up, walked around the table and tilted Ruby’s head back by the chin, and looked into her eyes.

“Blaaaaake,” Ruby whined. “I’m fine.”

“You stayed up too late last night,” Blake said as she let go and flicked her girlfriend’s forehead.

Ruby chuckled with a sly smile. “Whaaa?” Not hiding it at all.

_Oh, so that’s how she built that glove so fast,_ Neon thought. _Ooh, this piece of ice is hollow. How’d that happen?_

“Make sure you get plenty of sleep tonight, okay?” Blake said.

“Oooooookaaaay,” Ruby sighed melodramatically.

“Promise?”

Ruby hummed a smile. “Love you too, babe.”

Blake kissed the top of her head.

_Fucking adorable,_ Neon thought, chewing and watching on.

Crunch.

The rest of the day had Neon helping with random repairs, playing a game in her room, etc. but as much as she ran around to different parts of the ship and met with various crewmembers, she hadn’t really seen Flynt all day.

Ah, Flynt. Her favorite crush… His sexy neck leading up to his striking jaw and chin, and a face that belonged on a poster not hiding in his room.

She didn’t want to see him anyway.

Neon could have sworn she had been right about Flynt. That under a layer of insecurity, he was a dashing hero of justice who would jump at the opportunity to make a difference in the world. What sane person wouldn't?

Maybe she’d missed something else going on. It wasn’t like she handled their argument yesterday well after he’d pushed the wrong buttons. Or maybe he was just a coward, after all.

Back when she had an Aura, she would have been able to tell.

It was a strange attribute. Not a Semblance, per-say, Neon had just been bizarrely good at the Aura technique that lets an Aura-user expand and flow into the surrounding area. Any Hunter or Freelancer can extend their Aura into and around their weapon for strengthening, some even create bursts or shields for additional attack and defensive power. Neon, though, could pour her Aura for dozens of meters around her. A ship became an extension of her own body. Using these powers, she used to be a master pilot and a master at darts on the side. If someone else came into her range while her Aura was stretched out, she could feel their Aura resonating right back. Sensing aspects of who they were. It didn't always lead her in the right direction, but it gave her a good instinct for people.

Neon had lost that talent along with her Aura. It would take more practice to get it back, just like flying or throwing cans behind her shoulder.

Anyway, moving away from that sore subject, the rest of the day was a blur. She hung out with the workers again once they finished their shift. One of the mechanics, Aleese, was cool. She had big arms under a tank top. Naturally, Neon had to challenge her. It was close, in Neon’s opinion, but Aleese won every round.

She was a good soul, Neon decided. Now that she didn’t have her old powers, the best way to judge a character was through competition. Competition, you see, bears a woman’s soul, and Neon liked what she saw.

After dinner, Neon lost time playing a Scroll game, and a little earlier than usual, Neon yawned and cleared off her bed. Shirt off, wearing only her purple boxers, she turned off the lights and fell onto the sheets.

In the darkness, and no one around to see, Neon was allowed to take off her smile.

Neon didn't like doing this. She preferred to pass out before this process. The stimulus of the world around her, a game, her friends, someone in bed with her, or any other excuse not to drop her cheerful attitude.

You’d think it would be exhausting to keep it up, but it was more tiring to let the persona slip. It was like getting into the rhythm on a bike or a run and stopping just throws off your groove instead of feeling like a rest.

Neon was the persona, at least she had to be to stave off the empty black hole in her chest. The only way not to collapse in on herself was to be who she was before she’d lost her Aura. Correction: Before it was _stolen_ from her. An amputation, just not as visible as Ruby’s, but no less severe. Neon used to feel everything around her. As she drifted off to sleep, she’d feel the walls of her room, the outside air above a street. She instinctively resonated with the world, becoming one with it.

But now... all Neon could feel were her own senses. Just the immediate air on her mortal skin, and the bed pressing against her side. Only those to shield her from an ever-present numbness.

Sometimes, in her worst moments, she feared it was all a delusion. That she’d never survived the escape with Ruby. That she was still trapped in that blizzard. How else could she explain how dull and cold the world felt around her?

* * *

Two years earlier, Neon stumbled across the field of ice. The snow-riddled wind was a wall she forced her way through as the thick layer of snow burying her legs picked up and blew back in her face. It was difficult keeping her eyes open. They stung with the cold. She was pretty sure, if it was possible, her lungs were freezing over. She'd already lost feeling in her fingers and feet. Even in the extra layer of Atlesian uniforms she and Ruby stole before fleeing the Black Lily's flying laboratory in an escape pod, Neon felt as naked as her smock-covered body had been back at the lab.

Ruby hung limply on Neon’s shoulder. Ice stuck to her long hair as she was dragged forward, Neon tightly gripping her frail body with an arm over her shoulder, keeping her up on her only remaining leg. The Specialist who had captured her weeks ago had amputated her leg during the struggle. The lifestyle of a lab rat was not the best for recovery, and Ruby had only gotten worse during their imprisonment. Neon tried to shield her as best as she could from the assaulting wind, both of them limping sideways across the glacier.

“Come on, kid!” Neon kept encouraging Ruby as she adjusted her grip. “Any minute now. Someone will come for us. Just wait!”

Part of their--much more desperate in hindsight than they’d thought--escape plan was Ruby rigging the emergency signal from the escape pod to emit a hidden frequency only the White Fang or their contacts would pick up on. She’d learned the codes from her girlfriend, who apparently used to be one of the rebels. The rest of the escape hadn’t gone smoothly, and instead of waiting around in the crashed escape pod to be found by retaliating Atlesian troops, Neon and Ruby had to flee into the storm, carrying the signal emitter in a bag slung on Neon’s other side. At least the weight was balanced.

They could only hope that Ruby remembered the code correctly, which even Ruby admitted she was only partially certain she’d gotten right. And even if Ruby had a good memory, they could only hope that any White Fang or their sympathizers were within range of wherever the hell they were.

It was a long shot, they’d all known that. Barely any chance of survival, and that was _before_ the escape pod was too damaged to shelter in, and the fellow escapee who knew how to scramble the computers so Atlas couldn’t track the pod’s trajectory had taken two bullets to the stomach.

Even this joke of an outcome was preferable to the alternative, honestly. Being locked up, poked and prodded, tortured day in and day out. Reduced to a mere scientific curiosity at best, and a feral animal at worst.

Neon had known the odds when she teamed up with Ruby, so she pushed forward through the snow, hoping she was heading in the right direction but with no way of knowing if one existed. Her loose hair flapped back, stiffer by the minute as the storm slowly petrified her in its icy fury. She had to keep moving, or she'd succumb to it. After all, it wasn’t just her own life on the line.

“Just hang in there. Any minute now!” Neon called over the roaring wind to her companion, slumped against her.

Out of the six prisoners who orchestrated the escape, only Neon and Ruby made it to the pod--all the others cut down in the crossfire. Just the two of them back in a cell, and now just to the two of them on this deadly ice sheet. The cold, barren Solitas wasteland stretched around them ad infinitum.

“Remember what you told me, kid!” Neon gasped out, using the nickname she’d tried to cheer her cellmate up with. As a reward for surviving this, Neon would drop it. They’d been through too much together. Every sentence spoken exhausted Neon, but she couldn’t let her dragged companion know that. She had to be strong for her.

“You have people waiting for you! Remember! Your girlfriend! Your sister! Won’t be long until they find out you’re all right. Just a little bit longer. How does that sound…”

Ruby was silent next to her. The lack of even a breath against Neon’s ear was enough to make her forget the chaotic blizzard they were submerged in.

“Kid! Ruby? You still with me?”

Neon allowed herself to look at her former cellmate.

Ruby was dead weight. In her adrenaline and desperation, Neon hadn’t realized Ruby had stopped supporting herself completely.

Her eyes stared blankly down, half-open, lightless. Her body as cold as the ice around them.

That broken girl, clinging to whatever fragments of determination the laboratory scientists had missed during their torture, was gone.

Out of the six prisoners who had attempted escape, only Neon was left.

Neon had been dragging a corpse for the last hour, too focused on putting all her remaining strength into every crawling step to notice.

With this revelation, Neon’s only choice was to leave the other woman behind. Leave her as a sacrifice to the icy wilderness. Take her coat, and maybe--maybe, Neon could live long enough to see the storm break.

It would be so easy. Come on... Drop her and get started. It’s brutal, but it’s not like Neon had a choice.

And just before Neon almost believed that, she took another deep breath, stifled a cough from the lack of oxygen, and faced the wind once again.

No!

Neon couldn’t admit that.

Ruby had people waiting for her.

She had family to go back to.

Neon couldn’t leave her behind now, so using the last of her shaking muscle’s power, she kept dragging the body with her.

There was no way that they both went through hell just to freeze to death out here. It’s bullshit!

_I refuse,_ Neon thought, defying the storm, Atlas, the gods, the entire world if she had to.

If anyone was going to get out of that lab, it had to be Ruby. There’s no way they weren’t getting out _together!_

“Not like this,” Neon gasped, clinging to her stubborn denial as tightly as she held the emitter to her chest. “Come on, Neon!” she screamed, alone, trying to reignite her numb nerves and rewarded nothing but pain for the effort. Every ache, needle mark, and cut like icy shackles, but she had to keep going.

“One step. Two step. One step. Two Step.”

Back and forth. It was as far as her brain could count to right now. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. The snow soaked and froze against her legs, stabbing her skin. Every step slower than the last until her body dipped for just a moment. Then with another scream of “Move your ass!” Neon pulled herself up and charged in a near run to get back to walking. Each time the world got foggier and foggier around her as every struggling step blended with the last.

Nothing but a dark white-out surrounded her. Neon’s perception of the world was constant static noise.

“Me and you, Ruby!” Neon cried. Was that ice or tears pouring down her cheeks? “I’ll never leave you behind. No matter what!”

Minutes or hours into this process, a bright light disturbed the horizon of death. It tore through the storm above Neon and circled around, barely audible over the wind. The heat of its engines created a brief oasis as it landed shakily against the ice, blocking Neon’s path.

The spotlight on Neon was too bright. She could only get a glimpse at the silhouette. The ship wasn’t too big. A small shuttle? A troop transport?

Neon was so tired. Couldn’t even see straight.

Was it from Atlas? Was it the Black Lily’s Specialists coming to finish them off?

Were their tracks not covered by the storm after all?

Neon stood as tall as she could. Still holding Ruby's body, she dropped the emitter against the ice, freeing a hand to pull out the Atlas officer's pistol she'd stolen with the uniform. Loaded, she pointed it at the descending ramp.

Like hell, she’d let them take Ruby. Bring it on! Bring out your guns, your Semblances, whatever you’ve got! Pretending to be sane for Ruby was the only thing that got her through that hell. Without Ruby, Neon would have never gotten this far. “You can’t have her!” Neon would have screamed in defiance if her throat physically let her. All that defied the ship was a horse whisper.

The ramp descended, and in the doorway to the ship stood a lone figure.

Two cat ears on either side of a head with raven black hair, she desperately scanned the storm for something, her eyes locking on Neon and the body in her arms.

“Ruby!” Her call reverberated, echoing between the ship and Neon’s position. The black-haired Faunus sprinted down the ramp, into the storm toward them.

Neon’s knees buckled. She collapsed against the ground, cradling the body in her arms to protect it from the harsh ice.

Relief had negated every ounce of determination Neon had left, and she had nothing left to give.

“Get her inside,” Neon managed to croak out, not knowing if the other Faunus could hear her, but knowing deep down that it was useless. Yeah, the delusion was gone along with her strength.

Not needing any advice, the other Faunus--Blake? Neon was pretty sure that was the name that managed to get a smile out of Ruby back in their cell. Blake pried Ruby out of Neon’s arms and moments later had retreated back inside her ship.

Blake returned for Neon moments later. Not sure why, but Neon was surprised by this. Dragged inside, Blake slammed the door behind them. Finally, sealed away from the storm. The warmth enveloped Neon like a hot water bath. Her skin stung and itched from the sudden change, nerves panicking like her body would shatter.

“Ruby?” Blake hovered over the body.

Neon couldn’t move. She couldn’t tell her. All she could do was leave Blake to discover the truth on her own.

Blake tried not to glance down at the scars or the missing leg, at the frail atrophied body, as she put her hands on the cold dead cheeks.

“Ruby… It’s me. It’s Blake. It’s your babe. Remember? I saw your signal. Ruby? Please...” 

Her hands trembling, Blake put her ear to Ruby’s chest, and after a long moment, continuing to listen, her eyes went wide. Not out of despair, as Neon had expected. Instead, it was… hope?

As faint as a whisper, but as stunning as an orchestra’s crashing crescendo, warm air slowly sucked into the body’s lungs.

Tears flowed down Blake’s face. Sniffling and her shoulders shaking, she clutched... not the body, but Ruby.

“You’re alive.” Blake’s words were wept against Ruby’s coat, repeating over and over again, “You’re alive!”

Neon felt herself fall back. The shock of Ruby’s survival had given her enough strength to sit up, but only for a moment. She’d cry herself if she were any less exhausted. Neon only had enough for a faint smile before she finally let sleep or death overcome her. At that moment, she wasn’t sure which it was, and honestly, she didn’t really care anymore.

If the last thing Neon ever saw was Ruby’s resurrection and reunion, oblivion would be worth it.

* * *

A knock on the door snapped Neon out of that memory and brought her back to her room on _Paradise._

She almost reached for the Atlesian pistol she hid in her nightstand, the one she’d carried with her everywhere since her escape. But she recognized that knock, and now that she thought about it, she had half-heard uneven steps coming up the hallway to her door a couple seconds ago.

Putting on a loose shirt, Neon opened the door, revealing Ruby in sweats and a tank-top.

“Hey, Neon,” Ruby said with a nervous smile.

“Can’t sleep?” Neon asked.

“No. I tried. First time in a while, but…”

“Yeah, me neither…” So Neon hadn’t been the only one who’d been having a worse and worse time with that lately, huh? “You wanna hang out here or in the workshop?”

“Workshop.”

“I’ll make some coffee,” Neon said through a half-yawn. “Meet you there.”

“Thanks.” Ruby nodded and walked back down the hall on her metallic leg.

Neon arrived at the workshop with two cups. Coffee wasn’t bad, just wasn’t her first choice. But Ruby loved the stuff, and that’s all that mattered. Neon joined her, sitting up on the workbench.

“What’s up with her?” After handing off the coffee, Neon pointed to a motionless Penny, sitting slack in the corner.

“Charging,” Ruby said. “She needs a few hours of downtime for her Aura to self-recharge every day or so.”

“Didn’t Cinder give her the spare room? The one we use for passengers?” It was rare, but sometimes someone was willing to pay to have some salvagers fly them discreetly between settlements. Nothing really illegal about it. Just cheaper, and avoided checkpoints.

“I don’t think Penny has a sense of privacy.”

“Makes sense,” Neon said through a sip. “How are you holding up?”

Ruby looked into her cup. “Better than I thought I would.”

“How you mean?”

“I’m scared, but not… useless. I’m keeping it together.”

“You talk to Blake about it yet?”

“I don’t think she likes what we’re up to.” Ruby sipped her coffee to stop herself from saying anything worse.

“Yeah, I get that vibe too,” Neon replied. After rescuing Ruby and Neon from the glacier, Blake had dedicated every moment she could spare to protecting Ruby. Their desire to bring the Black Lily to justice was against all her efforts.

Ruby sighed. It bothered her more than she let on that Blake wasn’t supporting this new mission. But she wasn’t without any allies. “Honestly, I’m scared to ask Cinder why she agreed to help us, just in case the spell breaks or something.”

“Maybe she’s got a crush on you.”

Ruby scoffed. “Doubt it.” She then looked over at Neon and turned the subject around. “How about you? How are you doing?”

Dropping the smile around Ruby didn’t bother Neon for some reason. She’d also been there, someone else whose existence and sense of self had been torn to shreds. Both weren’t alone as they tried to salvage something from the scraps. She had Neon, and Neon had her.

“I think,” Neon finally spoke, “finding out what they did with our Auras is getting to me.”

“Oh,” Ruby glanced over at the limp android, “You seemed so happy to spend time with Penny.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I love Penny! None of this is her fault. But, what they did to us was to jumpstart magic batteries. It’s a new existential problem I didn’t ask for.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

Neon laughed. What a ridiculous thing to be opening up about. Ruby couldn’t help but join her. It wasn’t like “escaped lab experiment” support groups were common, so it was all they could do in their situation.

Oddly enough, it was moments like this, honestly talking about their personal horrors, that made Neon sure they could get through this. Neon wondered as she looked Ruby up and down if she knew how far she’d come these last two years. Both of them were trying to reclaim what they’d lost, an impossible task, but Neon didn’t know Ruby before they were assigned to the same cell, and she didn’t know Neon back when she was a famous smuggler. Ruby wouldn’t treat Neon like her old smuggling contacts would, and Neon wouldn’t treat Ruby the way Blake or her old friends did. They could grow at their own pace around each other with no judgment or expectation of who they used to (or should) be. It was nice. A much-needed comfort.

“Hey!” Neon elbowed her friend. “We’ll figure this out. Me and you, Ruby. I’ll never leave you behind. No matter what.” 

A reassurance. A promise, not just to Ruby, but also to herself.

Ruby knew this. She knew Neon needed that promise as much as she did. Smiling, Ruby leaned her head on Neon’s shoulder. “Thanks, bestie.”

Halfway through a long silence between them, the android in the corner of the workshop stirred. Penny snapped up and looked around, spotting the other two at the workbench.

“Oh! Am I interrupting?” she asked.

“Not at all,” Ruby said.

“Come on up,” Neon said, patting for her to sit next to her.

Penny hopped up with them. “Update: One-third of the way complete with the network algorithm’s search. Just letting you know.”

“Oh, cool,” Neon said. “Are you doing that right now or something?”

“Yes,” Penny said, with no tell that hinted at the complicated process going on inside her head.

“Multitasking--I like it.” Neon passed her the coffee cup, and Penny drank it, humming happily.

“It’s good.”

“Do you have taste buds, Penny?” Neon asked. She’d been meaning to for a while.

Penny smacked her lips. “Nope!”

“Welp, who am I to judge?”

“I enjoy doing things like this. It’s familiar for some reason,” Penny said, swirling the beverage around. “Can I ask about something?”

“Shoot,” Ruby said.

“It’s potentially distressing for both of you.”

“What isn’t?” Neon smiled.

“Can you tell me about Switches? I don’t have one of those, and I want to understand them.”

_Oh, those._ Neon had heard of those, but she wasn’t an expert. Thankfully, Ruby was there to explain.

“A Switch is how a trained Aura-user rapid-activates their Aura. It’s a mental command, but thinking ‘turn on’ is unreliable, so we get conditioning in early training to associate ‘turn on’ with specific sensations.”

Penny nodded. “I guess my model didn’t need a solution to that.”

“Our brains are probably messier than yours,” Neon added.

“My Switch is a quick sharp inhale. I do it, or imagine myself doing it, and because of the ingrained association, my… Aura activated.”

Penny mimicked a quick inhale a few times and nodded to herself.

“I guess that’s the difference between self-trained and being raised by Hunter,” Neon said. She usually just focused or meditated for several seconds, but being able to turn it on in a blink of an eye was needed for combat.

“Everyone comes up with something different,” Ruby continued. “Blake’s is staring intensely.” She made a dramatic wide-eyed face before cracking a smile.

“Her stare is her second blade!” Neon said, mocking both Blake and Ruby’s usual enthusiasm toward her.

“Oh, Blake’s second blade strikes in the same stroke!” Ruby said, then realized Neon was making fun of them. “She’s got techniques…”

“Techniques!” Penny piped up. “Techniques are cool. I bet the White Fang has a bunch I would never know.”

Ruby nodded, a smile growing on her face. “Yeah, she was trained by one of the White Fang’s leaders, an expert in the sword arts.”

“That’s cool!”

“I know!”

“Here we go,” Neon mumbled with a grin.

“Have I told you about the _Moonlight Slash?_ ” Ruby said.

“Oh boy, the _Moonlight Slash_? Never heard of it...”

“Tell me everything!” Penny said.

“It’s a technique Blake created herself. It’s a parry that blocks a close-range attack and strikes the enemy back in a single movement--one breath! Seeing it in action looks like she blocks and hits simultaneously. She even taught it to me. It’s so cool!”

“Wow!”

“It’s super difficult, though, and it relies on just the right circumstances. Super niche. And you have to be completely calm doing it. If you have any strong emotions, like shaking from rage, you’ll mess up the timing. But you can’t be too rigid either. You have to be as still yet fluid as a pool reflecting the moon.”

“And you can do this?”

“I tried. Katana’s not my forte. I was better with polearms and scythes. But I know the theory, at least. After her old weapon, _Gambol Shroud_ was destroyed, we built a new one together, _Blooming Shroud_. She taught me with our sword.” Ruby smiled to herself, thinking about the precious memory.

Penny leaned forward. “You like her a lot, don’t you?”

Ruby blushed a little. “Yeah. We’ve been together forever. Met during our semester at Beacon, and one of us has clung to the other, back and forth, for the last eight years. She helped me get through school, I joined her in the Freelancer Guild, she’s here with me on _Paradise_ , etc. etc. etc.”

“You help each other,” Penny said.

“Scale’s tipped these days,” Ruby said, swinging her leg out.

“I’m sure she relies on you more than you think,” Penny said. “You’re partners. I’m jealous of you two.”

Neon and Ruby turned to the android after that final comment. Penny looked like she was pining for something, turning away as if she’d said too much.

“Penny?” Neon asked.

Penny put a hand on her chin, deep in thought, then turned to the other two women. “I have a confession.”

Neon and Ruby turned to each other, then back to Penny.

“Shoot,” Neon said.

Penny, in an unashamed voice, as if she was reporting further progress on her network algorithm, said, “I have fallen in love with Captain Cinder.”

A long silence permeated the workshop. A seemingly impossible and unexpected sentence lingered with the smell of the cafe mocha.

Neon and Ruby both finally processed Penny’s words, and tilted their heads in unison.

““Huh?””


	9. Chapter 9

“What’s so funny?” Aleese asked.

“Just thinking about something that happened yesterday, lol,” Neon said, wiping a fake tear from her eye before she took another drink. Neon never drank, except during parties, but the best way to honor the holiday was to get wasted--At least, that’s how Neon was raised to understand it.

The bar she was visiting had been built under one of the bridges that crossed Zeta’s abandoned canal, squeezed between two support pillars with a handful of other run-down buildings. The lower end of the city had a noticeable lack of upkeep. Cracks spread across old brick walls and roads like cobwebs created by the ice, patches of dirty slush still piled up in the gutters, and at least a third of the street lights needed new bulbs swapped in. It was the part of town where the respectable criminals called home. Before anyone claims that’s oxymoronic, any smuggler or thief was bound to be more of an upstanding citizen than your average banker or politician. Imagine going to a bar on the fancier side of the settlement with those assholes. No, Neon belonged here with the other hard-working peeps.

The TV in the corner of the ceiling was turned down low, not interrupting the few patrons scattered around wobbly bar stools with Neon, or at the two tables behind her with mismatched chairs. You couldn’t trust an establishment with decor that looked like it was all bought at the same time or the same place--No character to it. Neon knew better than anyone how much soul was in an environment, and in order to nurture that soul, a space had to evolve naturally. The Atlas trademark minimalist aesthetic, which was indefinitely in fashion with upper-class snobs, thankfully was a status marker that settlers like herself never tried to emulate. As long as the glasses were cleaned, it didn’t matter if they weren’t the same size or shape.

“One of my friends cracked me up last night,” Neon continued to explain her giggling fit to Aleese. Their mutually beneficial team-up had begun when the human needed a drinking buddy and Neon didn’t have her own plan to honor the holiday. Even a visit to a small bar with a friend she’d made yesterday was better than nothing. “Sorry, you’d have to have been there.”

Neon chuckled into her bitter drink, thinking about the android’s confession from the previous night.

  
  


In the moments after the confession, Ruby tried wrapping her head around the android’s alleged feelings. “Why…? Why Cinder, though?”

_You can’t contain young love, Ruby,_ Neon thought. She didn’t care how or why Penny felt the way she did, this was way too good to ignore. However this went down, Neon wanted to see every second.

Penny only shrugged as an answer for Ruby. “Why do you love Blake?”

“Well… It’s hard to pin down. You’d have to have been there.”

Neon chuckled out loud, not able to keep in the obvious. If Ruby wouldn’t admit it, then Neon might as well rip off the bandage. “You see, Penny,” Neon said, putting an arm around Ruby’s shoulder, “Ruby here has a Faunus fetish.”

“I do _not!_ ”

“I see,” Penny said, taking the new information and adding it to whatever file she had on Ruby’s character.

“Don’t listen to her!”

“Bullshit, you don’t,” Neon stared at Ruby with the smile of someone who’s already won. “I’ve seen you two cuddle. You go right for the ears.”

“They’re fluffy! I mean… shut up!”

“Remind us again when you found out you were in love with Blake?”

"Like..." The trap of realization sprung around Ruby, and she had no way to escape it. “Right after…” she mumbled. “After I found out she was a Faunus.”

“Ha!”

Ruby punched Neon in the side. “Okay, okay! Enough of you!” Wiggling herself free of the arm, Ruby turned to her pseudo-little sister. “Penny! Honey! Do you know… understand… what love… is? Like… I’m not sure you get what you implied…”

Penny nodded. “I apologize for not being clear enough. I want to develop a romantic and potentially sexual relationship with Captain Cinder.”

Ruby’s expression froze. “....... _Ooookay!_ ”

Ruby was going through what many older siblings must go through when discovering their little sibling had grown up. At least Neon assumed she was. Hell if she knew. Single child for the win!

“You’re both my friends, so I should be honest about my intentions with your captain.”

Neon cackled. “I love this! I love this so much!”

“Um…” Ruby wanted to be supportive, but romantic interest was the last thing they’d expected from the funky little robot. “What do you think is appealing about Cinder?” Ruby asked, failing at sounding casual. “I’ve known her for a long time, and she seems…”

“Impenetrable?” Neon helped.

“Good way to put it.”

“I bet Penny could figure out some ways to loosen her up.” Neon said, suggestively moving two fingers back and forth through a hole made between her other hand’s finger and thumb.

Penny thought about the question. “Hmmm. I like her voice.”

“What about it?”

“She sounds nice.”

“Bit growly,” Neon added.

“Exactly!” Penny’s eyes shone in excitement.

Wasn’t Neon’s kink, but she could see it.

With the shock worn off, Ruby patted Penny on the shoulder. "If that's how you feel, good luck with that. I hope it works out."

"I will wingman for you so hard," Neon said. "Just give the word, Penny. Any day, any time."

Penny smiled at all the support. “Thank you, but don’t worry about it, I will not need assistance.”

Neon threw her head back and raised both arms skyward. _“YESSS!!!”_

  
  


At the bar, almost twenty hours later, Neon finally wiped the smirk off her face with another sip of her drink. That earlier conversation had drifted away from the subject of Penny’s aspiring love life, but plans were already forming in Neon’s head. Besides, what better way to pay Cinder back for helping them with their Black Lily problem than setting her up with a nice girlfriend.

Aleese, sitting at the bar next to Neon, waved over the ear-studded barkeep. “Quin, refill us.”

Quin slid over. They were full of energy, amped up for the small-scale festivities going on in their bar. “Everyone’s next round is on me,” they said, filling up Neon and Aleese, as well as a glass for themself and raising it to the rest of the customers. “To the lost!”

““To the lost!”” Everyone cheered back and downed whatever drink they held.

A younger guy in leather armor and green slicked back hair finished his drink. From his conversation with a woman bear-eared Faunus sitting by him, Neon had overheard that he was a member of the Freelancer guild. “Rest in peace,” he said, “poor bastards. It was The Day of the Lost, and it was tradition to live it up in memory to those who couldn't. The holiday was a sort of memorial to those who lost their lives to Grimm during the last two-hundred and twenty years of their monstrous existence.

Aleese chimed in. “Thank god we haven’t had any tragedies lately.”

“You’re welcome,” the Freelancer said.

“Don’t be so full of yourself Ember,” Ivor, the bear Faunus, said.

“There’s a little honor in cleaning up the mess someone left you with,” Neon teased. After the near-collapse of the Hunter academies, the Freelancer guild had stepped up and done a better job at Grimm Hunting than the Kingdom loyalists ever had. Hunters were still around, just operating in territory much closer to the Kingdoms. Neon was pretty sure this Ember guy could only get away with being inside Atlas territory because he was at the very edge.

Ember continued, much more soberly, “Let’s be real, we’re due for another Kuroyuri any year now.”

“My money’s on that Sakura settlement up north,” Ivor said. “You’d have to be crazy to live up there.”

The bar’s owner smacked Ivor over the head--right between her two bear ears.

“Ow!”

Quin poured Ivor that free drink. “Don’t go around planning who we’ll honor next year.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, accepting the scolding.

Neon had heard about this Sakura settlement, and Ivor was probably right. The settlement had been built over the last few years at the very northwest end of the continent. It was habitable, but no one else was up there. It was as if Sakura was built to escape from the rest of the world. With no one around to come to the rescue or support them, it was slightly surprising they’d lasted as long as they had. They were practically begging for a Grimm swarm to run them over. Basically, it was almost exactly what had happened down in Anima before the Kuroyuri breach, eighteen years ago.

Ivor turned to Neon. “Hey, vulture!”

Neon turned to her. “Yo!” she said with a happy hum.

“Now that your ship’s all fixed up, you all taking any passengers when you head back east? I might wanna get out of Atlas for a while.”

“Take it up with my captain. She hasn’t even told me how long we’ll be staying in town.” A white lie to avoid talking about how she had no idea if they would be heading back east at all. Their mission, once Penny and Cinder’s network search pulled up a lead, would probably lead them even deeper into Atlas territory. Neon would have to hope her old smuggling routes held up in the years since her forced retirement.

Neon picked up her drink, and in the spirit of the holiday, turned to Ivor. “To the fallen _Faunus_.”

“Especially the fallen Faunus, my sister!” Ivor said, cheering with her own glass and reaching across the bar to clink it against Neon’s.

“May we get what we deserve in the next life,” Neon mumbled and took another ship. “Bleh.”

Ivor grinned. “Can’t stomach _that_ stuff? And you call yourself a Solitan.”

Neon side-eyed Ivor. “Oh ho ho. Unlike you, I don’t need a drink to keep warm. You leave your sweater at home tonight?”

A smile flashed on Ivor’s face. “I must have heard you wrong, sister. Cause it almost sounded like you said I was furless or something.”

“My mistake. I must have mumbled,” Neon turned herself toward the end of the bar. “Cause I’ve got a sister crewmate from the _southern_ continents, and she’s got more fur than you!”

Ivor stood up.

Neon met her.

Face to face, chest to chest, they glared at each other.

“Call me furless--”

“Say I’m not a Solitan--”

““--one more time!!””

They both chugged down what was left in their glasses and slammed their empty drinks on the bar.

““Barkeep!””

Aleese smirked behind Neon. “Finally, this place was getting too somber for Lost Day.”

_““Keep ‘em coming!!””_

Quin smiled greedily, happy for the additional purchases they would be serving tonight.

Neon's sharp-toothed grin turned up at her opponent, and Ivor's wild eyes glared back. The bear Faunus had a huge advantage in terms of size, experience, and bestial traits. But Neon wasn't one to back down from a fight.

_Now…_ Neon thought, eyes glowing in joy. _Let me see your soul’s made of!_

* * *

Flynt thought about going inside one of the many bars he walked past. De-stress, maybe meet someone who thought he looked nice, and get them to take him home for the night. He was less picky than most. Statistically, he could probably find someone who thought he would do for some fun. It was The Day of the Lost, after all. You were supposed to live it up any way you could.

Unfortunately, Flynt's anxiety about spending money on himself was much worse than usual. Even if it was just a drop of wealth, it would be a drop he wouldn't be sending home to help. Flynt knew deep down that it would be the only thing he’d focus on, even if it was just getting himself and a date some drinks.

Walking back and forth, Flynt was aimlessly wandering through the settlement to clear his head. The uneven lights of the city and a faint shimmer from the shattered moon hanging in orbit in the night sky above were all that illuminated him. Flynt eventually reached a road that ran alongside the empty canal, leading under a series of bridges that crossed from one side of the settlement to the other. He’d stuck to the more destitute side of the city to avoid getting lost, but he was also a little wary of Atlas law enforcement these days to go anywhere nicer.

As he walked under the third bridge, Flynt happened to look behind him at the sound of someone stumbling out of a bar he'd just passed, seeing who turned out to be a familiar face.

_“Show Time! S-Shout your love until the stars understandss!!!”_

Neon turned mid-song, put a hand up to shield her eye from the nonexistent glare of the moon, and squinted at Flynt.

“Oh, hey Fl--”

She turned with a jerk. Rushing to the rails, Neon puked into the empty canal.

“Bleeeehhhhhhh!”

  
  


And that’s how Flynt came to be patting a drunk and sick Faunus on the back as she again emptied her stomach over the side of the canal’s wall. This was the fourth (and from the quantity, probably the last) time on their way back home.

“Where’s your friend?” Flynt asked. “Didn’t you go out with someone?”

“I think…” Neon raised her head to remember like she was trying to pool her thoughts together. “She went somewhere to make out with the Freelancer… or was it the bear… was it both? One of those, you decide.”

As he returned to leading the staggering Neon through the settlement, Flynt rolled his eyes at the scenario. It wasn’t her fault they happened to run into each other, and helping her home was a more productive way to spend his evening than feeling sorry for himself. But seeing someone you plan to cut out of your life is a little painful, especially in Neon’s case.

Neon looked up at the clear night sky. Her face smiled as she took in the stars hanging above them. “Pretty.”

“There’s more light pollution here,” Flynt said. They had a better view when they were salvaging back east.

“Not if you go high enough.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“When I was a kid, my uncle… he raised me, you know! He’s great.”

“Sounds great.”

“All by himself too. I lived with him after my parents lost custody. I was sent there instead of my aunt cause they all thought I was a boy. PSYCH!! Got’em.”

Flynt chuckled with her as Neon tried to remember what she was talking about.

“He ran an airfield. We had a bunch of airships. One night, when I was just a kid, we flew up to look at the stars. We went waaaay up. Nothing but stars up there.” Neon reached up, fondly touching the star tattoos that descended the side of her face. “Like, you could see every solar system and galaxy around you, their light seeps into you, an infinite canvas stretching out forever and ever…”

“Sounds beautiful,” Flynt said, humoring her, but meaning the words.

“When I asked, he gave me a little planetarium projector and taught me to fly so I could go up and see the stars whenever I wanted.”

“Cool guy.”

“Yeah, I miss him.”

“Oh…” Flynt hadn’t realized it was a sore subject. “I’m sorry.”

Neon snorted. “He’s not dead! Silly.” She laughed and leaned against him. “Nah, the law nabbed ‘em. He let smugglers run through the airfield and one day got unlucky. That’s how I met all my old contacts. He got me on one of their crews after he saw how great at piloting I was.”

“Oh.” Admittingly, Flynt was used to families guiding you away from that sort of lifestyle, but to each their own.

“Solitas’s best smuggler,” Neon said to herself. “Ah, the good old days.” She looked up at him. “You got any ‘good old days,’ Kingdom boy?”

“I… probably.” Flynt couldn’t think of any part of his life that was uniformly better or worse than any other. Well, the present was probably the worst, but the opposite? “My sister and I took boxing and music classes together. Does that count? I guess that was back before we lost the shop.”

“You and your sister ran a shop?”

“No, it was a family business.” There he went, spilling personal information all over the place. “We were one of the last independent Dust shops back before the SDC finally ran us out of business.”

“That sucks, dude.”

“It happened to a lot of people.”

Neon turned to him, mouth half open and a raised eyebrow. “Wait, you learned music? What instrument?”

“Uh, trumpet.”

“That’s coooooool.” Neon smiled, tooting mock brass instrument noises with her lips as they reached the docks, and _Paradise_ came into view.

Since Flynt had to put up with Neon's vomit breath all the way back, after returning to the ship, he enforced a mandatory and vigorous tooth brushing followed by a face wash that turned into a dunking. Once that was done, Flynt led Neon back to her quarters to lay her down in bed.

Against his expectations for Neon to conk out without a word, the Faunus shot up straight as she sat on the bed and looked at Flynt with an intense lopsided stare.

“I’m not done with you yet so have a seat.” Neon lightly pulled him onto the bed next to her so she could glare at him more accurately. “What’s your game?”

“Excuse me?” Flynt said, covering up a laugh at how ridiculously tired she looked.

“Are you just a tease? Because it’s getting old, dude.”

Flynt let a snicker slip. “No teasing, I’m afraid.”

“Lame. I’ve been flirting with you for months, you know!”

“No shit.”

“How dare you ignore my charms…” Neon's head slumped for a moment as she rubbed her eyes to keep awake. “Damn it. Reciprocate sometime, jackass.”

He sighed, looking her up and down. They were sitting together, it was late. Neon was only wearing her skirt and cropped tank top, purple bra visible underneath which perked forward as she stretched and yawned. Probably best not to be thinking about _that_ right now, so to distract himself, Flynt altered the subject. “Is it uncool to ask why? I mean, if you knew me a couple of years back, I’d get it, but I’m not very exciting anymore.”

“I like mellower guys, and you’re like me,” Neon whined, her tail swaying back and forth on the sheets behind her.

Flynt hadn’t expected that. “How?”

“You like helping people.”

“How humble of you to say about yourself.”

“I am great, aren’t I. But I can tell you’re cool too. Just trying to do the right thing. That’s how Atlas got me though. I gave the wrong asshole the benefit of the doubt, and he backstabbed me. Boom! Right into prison, then from there to a lab to have my soul ripped out.”

Flynt was never sure how much gravity he should give the subject of Neon’s trauma. But if the Faunus was going to make light of it, he wasn’t going to let it drag down the conversation either. “Kinda shitty of you to give me a warning about being nice to people after I practically carried you home. You should have done that thirty minutes ago so I had the chance to leave you behind.”

“No!” Neon play-bopped him on the nose, but missed and came close to poking his eye. “Sorry! But, no! I don’t need to tell you that no matter how much we’re hurt, we need to keep caring. You pretend you don’t, but you can’t hide that you care, Kingdom boy.”

Flynt shook his head. Some good it’d done either of them. The how and why were totally different, but they were both in the worst places of their lives because they wanted to help people. “You really want justice, huh? I guess I was wrong assuming it was all about revenge. My bad.”

“That’s a s-secondary concern,” Neon said. “I want it. Just not the most important.”

“Yeah?”

Neon grew somber, staring at her hands clenched together on her lap. “Only me and Ruby got out. All the others… everyone we left behind… they deserve some peace. They deserve to be remembered or at least vindicated. It’s about a lot more than just what I want. As for Ruby… Yeah, it’s more personal for her, I think, but she can have that. It’s what she needs.”

Flynt realized that he actually trusted Neon’s judgment. Not right now, but sober Neon he wouldn’t mind watching his back. “If you trust her,” he said, conceding part of their argument from the other day.

“But I guess you’ve abstained from any of this being your business, haven't you?” Neon frowned grumpily. “What are you going to do in the meantime? Just work on the ship and pretend none of this is happening when we could use your help?” She was a little too drunk to successfully pull off a proper passive-aggressive tone. Instead, she sounded angrier than she probably meant to.

"I..." Flynt was caught off guard. He hadn't wanted to admit it like this, but he might as well get it over with. There wasn't a better time or place he could think of. "Neon, I'm leaving soon."

Neon stared at him and leaned back on her arms, infected with the same bittersweet emotion of being around someone you know would soon be out of your life.

“Probably in a week or so,” Flynt continued. “I’ll talk to Cinder about it in a couple days.”

Neon pouted. “I was afraid this would happen.”

“It’s not… Well, let’s be real, part of it is that if I stick with you guys, it’s only a matter of time before another Specialist tracks you down.”

“You know what!” Neon started, but her face was understanding. A little angry she understood, but understanding nonetheless. “That’s fair. I can’t blame you.”

Flynt smiled. He’d miss this. Her escalating teasing for one, but also the quiet moments. Stuff like sitting on the bridge together, sitting on the ramp for a lunch break, or bringing her home after she got carried away during her obligatory Day of the Lost celebration. Flynt decided this one time to be vulnerable. Whether it was the mood making him sentimental, or the knowledge that it wouldn't matter in the long run, he wasn't sure. One of those, you decide.

“Honestly, fighting for justice sounds awesome,” Flynt said. “You were right. I’d love to do that. I’d love to go off on some grand adventure and save at least a corner of the world.”

“But?” Neon said for him.

“I can’t run off for a selfish desire like that,” Flynt said. It was weird to describe pursuing justice as a selfish idea, but that’s how he felt about it. He couldn’t help them at the expense of the people who relied on him. “Have you ever heard of Dust Lung?” Flynt asked.

Neon gasped in horror. She faced him and grabbed his shoulders. "You have Dust Lung? Why are you fucking working?!"

“What? No! Cut that out! My brother has it!”

“Oh.” Neon let go. “Sorry.”

Flynt took a deep breath and opened up about his family and their situation. He told her how, after the Dust shop business collapsed, his older brother had to work dangerous side jobs to help support the rest of them. The final one being a poorly regulated Dust mine. Flynt had gotten lucky, more so than any of them. He'd snagged himself a scholarship that would be his ticket to medical school and a better future. It wasn't just for his own success, but a way to help the rest of his family as well. "I could learn how to save people," Flynt said. "One way or another, people always need saving, and it was something I could do to help. But as I was working toward that goal, before I could do anything..."

Neon interrupted his pause. “You’re brother?”

Flynt nodded. “Been in a coma for about a year and a half. I’ll be honest, I haven’t called home in a while. I’m too scared to hear if his condition has gotten worse or not.”

Neon’s eyes went wide in understanding. “You're paying for his treatment…” She sat back and put a hand on her forehead. “Oh, I’m an asshole!”

“Eh, who isn’t?” Flynt said, smiling to ease her discomfort. “Yeah, I left to help him out. It was hard, though. I needed to use my Semblance to get a job that would pay enough, but I’m not registered with the guild, and I never bothered to train my Aura powers, so Cinder hiring me was a lifesaver.”

“She gets it,” Neon said, her intoxicated brain piecing together a part of the puzzle that was Cinder Fall. “That explains things.”

“The funny thing is--” Flynt continued to vent to the Faunus “--I never got along with my brother. My sister and I were closer in age. We were best friends growing up and everything. Him though? We never got along. We weren’t cruel to each other or anything. We just didn’t have anything in common, but I still loved him, you know? He was still my big brother, so when the medical bills started pouring in, it wouldn't have been right to let the rest of them put up with that burdon. Not after I’d gotten lucky for so long."

Neon looked at Flynt, a sad smile on her lips. Only from her fingers brushing the back of his hand did Flynt realize how tense the conversation had made him.

“Hey,” Neon whispered. “You want a hug or something…?”

Flynt gave her a flat stare.

“You’re getting one.” Neon hugged him.

Flynt shrugged, resigned to his fate, only giving her a pat on the back in return. He didn't really want sympathy. He'd only done what anyone else in his situation would have, sheesh. "Well, if I'm lucky, you'll forget all this by morning."

Neon muffled a laugh into his shoulder. “My mind’s a steel trap. I’ve never gotten blackout drunk in my life.”

“Well, damn.”

Shifting her weight, Neon tackled Flynt onto the bed. His back hit the sheets, and her weight pinned him down as she crept on top of him before he had the chance to escape. Her body leaned and pressed against him. A slight blush below her absentminded eyes, lips parted as she smiled at him, her feet rubbed up and down his leg, lifting the edge of his pants to get at his bare skin.

“This is the part where the vulnerable victim gets taken advantage of,” Neon said.

Flynt’s blush burned across his face. “I would never do that, you idiot!”

“Not you! Me! I’m definitely not above that.”

Her shit-eating grin softened into something more serious. She laid her head down on his chest, tracing her hand across his arm. “Just because you can split yourself apart into a bunch of other you’s, doesn’t mean you should carry everything by yourself, just cause you can.”

Flynt leaned his head back against her pillow. Somewhere under that babbling there probably was a nice thought. “Thanks,” he said softly.

“Hehehe, I’m gonna have to convince you to experiment with your splitting ability,” Neon laughed quietly, her eyelids struggling to stay open. “ _Two_ sexy musicians at once… hehe.”

_And there goes the moment,_ Flynt thought, _right off a cliff._ He rolled his eyes before looking back down at her.

“Uh, Neon?”

She was drooling on his shirt, completely passed out.

Flynt sighed, her body rose slightly with his chest. He wasn’t willing to wake her up to get her off, so he lay there, pinned between the Faunus and her bed. He squirmed a little to get into a comfortable position, sleeping in your clothes wasn't bad every once and awhile. Lying there, a soft breath brushed against his neck, her leg rubbed against his thigh, head cradled on his chest, Neon looked so comfortable she could sleep for days.

Maneuvering his arm up, Flynt brushed a loose strand of hair out of her cute face, fingers tracing her cheek and tattooed temple. “You’re not so bad yourself,” he whispered, only giving in to her efforts, now that she was fast asleep.

Eventually, he joined her, comforted by the weight of her body, and drifted off to a peaceful sleep.

* * *

Tonight's patrol had resulted in zero signs of suspicious or hostile activity--again. Blake’s nightly watch was uneventful, the same as the last several nights since their close call at Hailstone. As far as she could tell, they’d gotten away, and no one was coming after them. No one was watching them. No one was prepping an attack. But the chances someone did arrive from Atlas to hurt Ruby were higher than they’d been for the last two years. So much effort on Blake’s part thrown out the window because of one unlucky salvaging job. With all that on her mind, Blake couldn’t risk skipping a single nightly patrol.

It meant late nights, but Blake had been practically raised in similar situations. She’d spent years in a guerilla rebel cell after all, and most of her skills weren’t rusty yet. Moving between the shadows of the dock, Blake scouted out all the possible points someone could keep an eye on the ship from. No sign of anyone. Near the end of her self imposed shift, Blake spotted Neon and Flynt heading back inside. She hadn’t realized they’d left together. Naturally, they didn’t spot her hidden halfway up the side of a nearby crane’s arm.

Once Blake was finally satisfied that this night was safe, she returned inside. She locked everything up. Double-checked the cargo bays were empty of any intruders and went upstairs. Ruby would still be tinkering away in her workshop at this hour. Blake hadn’t told her of the patrols. She’d either get angry or worried about Blake’s concern, and Ruby didn’t need either of those. She should be avoiding stress, but she and Neon seemed hellbent on seeking it out despite that. Things were strained enough as is. Blake didn’t have the heart to outwardly oppose her girlfriend, so all she could do was silently protect her any way she could.

There was only one nearby threat. It was inside the ship. Blake was able to keep a close eye on it, and it seemed innocent enough, but Blake was too careful to be fooled.

It stood right in the middle of the hall that the crews’ quarters lined, between where Blake was standing and her room. Even with Blake’s guard on high alert, she hadn’t expected to see it again that night.

It was still, facing one of the doors. To be precise--Neon's door. A blank, emotionless stare was on its face. Even in its cutesy fem get-up, it was unmistakably inhuman. An uncanny figure that stalked the halls of the ship, only in these rare moments when it thought no one observed was it caught off guard enough that someone could see a slip in the mask, and its true nature exposed.

“What are you doing?” Blake asked. She’d quietly creeped up alongside it without drawing its attention. It would have been impossible to pass without it seeing her, and Blake wanted it out of the hall, or she’d never find sleep knowing what could be blankly staring toward her own door.

It snapped its attention toward her. Its face contorted into the simulacrum of a friendly smile. Artificial muscles pulled up around its mouth as it tilted its head and clasped its hands behind its back. “Hello, friend Blake! You were out late.”

“Don’t call me that, scrap.” Blake pushed past it. She wouldn’t do anything to solve this problem for now, not until it posed an undeniable threat. Ruby liked the thing. Way too much, but Ruby liked it. That didn’t mean Blake was going to pretend to get chummy or even put up with its bizarre programming.

“Ruby told me you’re an expert with sword techniques.”

Blake ignored it. She hated it when it said Ruby’s name.

“Maybe we could train together,” it continued. “I have some interesting techniques myself. If it would help protect Ruby, I’d let you learn how to counter them.”

It almost tempted Blake. Knowing what this thing was capable of could help her prepare for its potential betrayal. But that knowledge went both ways. Sparring with it would also let the machine discover Blake's techniques, rendering her defenseless.

“I don’t need your help to protect Ruby,” Blake said. She was doing a perfect job before this thing showed up. Things would have been different if she’d protected Ruby from the start--before any of this could have happened. 

“We can’t be too careful with her safety,” it said. “I know you have your misgiving about me, and I understand where they come from, but I assure you, my goals align with Ruby’s interest.”

That’s how Blake knew she couldn’t trust it. The way it talked and acted differently around separate members of the crew was subtle, but Blake could tell adapting to different targets. If she had to guess, the machine was designed for infiltration, which made it even more potentially dangerous. The only protection the rest of the crew had against it was Blake, so she would give it an inch.

“Try anything, or hurt Ruby any more, and I’ll personally dismantle you piece by piece,” Blake warned with a glare over her shoulder.”

Blake ignored the feigned resignation and hurt in its eyes as she left it behind.

Her room was half empty. Blake passed by nearly bare walls, shelves, and a closet. Her belongings were pushed to the very edge of each, their neighbors slowly removed one by one. What had remained called out like they were begging for something to return to fill the empty space beside them.

Undressing, Blake removed and hung up _Blooming Shroud's_ sheath next to her white coat, then she took off her tight black bodysuit and tossed it in the laundry pile. Despite the danger outside, Blake left the door unlocked, as she always did nowadays.

Slipping on a loose yukata-style shirt, Blake crept on top of her bed’s sheets, and curled into a tight corner next to the wall, leaving plenty of room behind her. An unnoticed or ignored gesture of invitation.

Blake's eyes stayed wide open as she lay there, agonizingly aware of the creeks in the metal ship, or a truck passing by the docks outside, or a gust of wind passing her window. They distracted her from resting. She needed to feel Ruby's arms wrapped around her. To feel her lover's body holding her, patting her head and whispering into her ears to lull her fast asleep.

But it hadn’t been like that between them for a long time, and Blake wasn’t sure it ever would be again. The days when Ruby comforted Blake were long over, and Blake wasn’t good enough to return the favor.

Eventually, Blake managed to face the night alone, and exhaustedly sunk unconsciousness.


	10. Chapter 10

The Northern Volcanic Current traveled down the west end of Solitas. The warm water made the coast and surrounding area a relatively comfortable tundra compared to the miles of ice sheets that covered the continent further east. A large percentage of settlements inside Atlas’s territory spread out here, mostly functioning to satisfy the Kingdom’s agricultural needs. Bastow was one of these many small settlements. It sprawled across the surface of a large bay like a lazy insect balancing on top of a pool. The only connection to the nearby peninsula was two raised train bridges that ran through the center of the town. Docks, empty of their fishing boats out for the season's catch, stretched out in all directions. The exact line where the artificial island ended and the network of boardwalks began was impossible for Flynt to judge at a glance.

_Paradise’s_ front bay door dropped to this sight, with Neon and Cinder standing on its edge. Neon adjusted her jean jacket, and Cinder wore her black half cape, hiding the cybernetic clawed arm as they faced the foggy settlement.

The crew had flown through most of yesterday and all through the night to get here. Cinder and Penny's algorithm had finally turned up a lead. Facial recognition picked up on a Dr. Glauco, a developer of realistic facial prosthetics who disappeared several years back. They'd found him in a recently uploaded educational travel vlog--something about exploring Atlas's coastal fishing settlements. He appeared in the background of one of the vlog’s shots, an accidental but clear image of his face, unaware of the camera, but unmistakably one of Cinder’s targets.

It was decided after a quick look into his old research that Penny's face was either based on his work or directly developed by him. Ruby even did a quick mechanical analysis with Penny's assistance to double-check. So the crew had arrived on the scene, with the new goal to discover why a doctor of niche renown was hiding in a small fishing settlement of all places.

“For now, we stick to reconnaissance,” Cinder ordered her pilot. “We’ll get used to the layout of the town, but try not to ask any questions or bring attention to our search until we know what we’re dealing with.”

Neon nodded. “Should we split up?”

“Meet me back here in three hours. If you find the doctor, contact me and we’ll plan how to approach him together.”

Flynt was seeing them off. He’d only gotten a couple hours of sleep the night before after the hectic departure from Zeta and the long flight from the south coast to the west. With a yawn, Flynt stretched his arms and scratched the back of his head. When had he stopped wearing his hat and sunglasses? He always liked how they looked on him and the image of confidence they projected, but ever since Hailstone, they’d mostly stayed back in his room. He couldn’t be bothered. It was as if Cinder and Ruby coming alive to fight Black Lily was sapping the strength out of him.

“Soooooo,” Neon leaned over and elbowed her captain, “you and Penny really got into this, huh?”

Cinder raised her visible eyebrow, trying to piece out what her pilot was on about this time. “It's a valuable resource.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes?”

“Been spending a lot of time together then?”

“Just enough to make sure it knew what to look for.”

“Maybe you should take her with you. Get her out of the ship. A nice walk can stimulate the brain, probably even android ones. Hell, you might even get to know each other better.”

Cinder stared at her, beyond confused why this was being brought up at all. “She’d be easily recognized if the doctor did work for Black Lily,” she finally said, stating the painfully obvious. “We want to find out what he knows before he discovers us. Penny stays on the ship.”

Neon shrugged and stuffed her hands in her jacket pockets. “Maybe next time then. It’s a shame, she’d enjoy that.” She poorly hid a chuckle to herself. Whatever the joke was, it went right over Cinder’s head, sailing far above where Flynt was standing as well.

Seagulls flew out of Cinder and Neon’s path as Flynt watched them leave down the ramp. In the morning fog, the settlement they headed toward almost looked deserted. Flynt could've been tricked into thinking so if it weren't for the occasional yell or conversation that drifted over to the landing pad.

With a clear schedule and nothing else to keep him aboard, as soon as his boss and crewmate disappeared into the mist, Flynt stepped out onto the ramp.

“Heading out?” a voice only a few feet away from him asked.

Flynt jumped and spun around to see Blake, the shadows of the cargo bay hiding her. Had she just silently walked up to him, or had she been in there with the rest of them the entire time? Probably the latter. She had been sneaking around a lot more lately; living up to her ninja-like reputation.

“Just for a while,” Flynt said, regaining his composure. “I want to get some air.”

Blake nodded, a bored expression around lifeless eyes.

“So…” Flynt put his hands in his vest pockets, “they didn’t ask you to help with the search?”

“I’ll watch the ship,” Blake said flatly. “They’ll call if they need backup.”

Flynt nodded. As long as they didn’t draw attention to themselves, a crew stopping by the settlement for fuel or supplies shouldn’t be rare, so even those two shouldn’t raise many heads. “Will you give it to them?” Flynt asked, genuinely curious.

Blake sighed and leaned against the ramp's huge frame. “If their suicide mission puts Ruby at risk, then I’ll have to, I guess.”

“Last time I checked,” Flynt added, feeling impertinent, but it needed to be said, “it’s Ruby’s mission too.”

Blake was silent, and Flynt wasn’t comfortable with that. There was a lot of unresolved tension in that silence. Whatever was going on between Blake and Ruby, they hadn’t had it out yet.

“You’re not what I expected,” Flynt thought out loud. “I thought the ship’s resident White Fang veteran would jump at the opportunity to fight Atlas.”

Blake shrugged. “And how many ex-White Fang have you met, Flynt?”

“That’s fair.” Flynt had only met a handful of vocal supporters from his Faunus acquaintances, which weren’t common growing up in Atlas. Blake, however, was the first he’d ever met with an actual connection with the group. “I was just thinking about how you charged at that Specialist in Hailstone. After that, I thought you’d be more on board with Cinder’s plan.”

“I didn’t go looking for that Specialist, unlike..” she trailed off and just nodded out the door toward the fog where Cinder and Neon vanished.

“And Ruby,” Flynt added.

Blake let out a sigh, annoyed by his insistence. “And..” she finally said “... Ruby.”

Flynt thought back to what Neon had told him the other day. They had been far more open with each other than he was comfortable with (Neon due to alcohol, and Flynt due to poor life decisions), but he didn't regret it. "I think Neon’s trying to do the right thing at least. I imagine Ruby is too. Can’t blame them after what happened.”

“There’s a difference between ‘doing the right thing’ and getting themselves killed for nothing!” Blake’s teeth gritted after she spoke, finally voicing her frustrations with the pair. “The White Fang never took on a fight unless we had a clear path to victory. I doubt whatever Cinder comes up with will convince me she shares that perspective.”

“So it’s _her_ you don’t trust?”

“She should have minded her own business. Whatever she wants with Black Lily, it isn’t going to help Ruby.”

Flynt wasn’t sure if he continued pressing her out of concern for a friend or morbid curiosity, but he wanted to know either way. “What will you do about it?”

Blake was quiet for a long moment, staring out like she hadn’t heard him. “I’ll do anything to protect Ruby,” she spoke. “I just hope it won’t come to that.” She looked at Flynt, eyes cold, but not hostile, as she analyzed him. “You’re leaving, aren't you?”

"Yeah..." Considering how he'd notably distanced himself from the rest of the crew, it was a reasonable guess. He wasn't being very subtle about it in this conversation, either. "Probably next week. I still haven't built up the courage to talk to Cinder about it."

“Well,” Blake leaned back and closed her eyes, “I probably won't have to intervene until then.”

“Thanks… I guess?” Flynt rubbed the back of his head. Had she just done him a favor? 

Blake shrugged and turned to walk back inside the ship’s maw. “Enjoy outside,” she called back but didn’t stick around long enough to hear his own farewell.

  
  


Flynt walked through the unfamiliar place. He'd say he was getting himself lost in the settlement, but even as a kid he'd always had a good sense of direction. Maybe that was the source of his current feeling of powerlessness. When things got bad, he had a family to lean on, but now he had set out to make the sacrifice this time. It was all up to him, but he'd neglected to build a tolerance for that sensation.

As he moved through the dreary settlement, Flynt occasionally spotted some kids playing and scampering across a narrow street surrounded by small wooden buildings. An elderly man squinted out of a window overlooking the town as a soft sea breeze blew across his face. Most of the market was closed until the ships and trains returned, and from what Flynt could tell, only a handful of barely trained Atlas troops kept an eye on the station--more on standby than on patrol. There weren’t a lot of crimes or potential uprisings to police in a town like this. This place was necessary for the function of the rest of the Kingdom but was still easily overlooked…

Which made it the perfect place to hide.

Flynt’s peaceful walk down side streets and boardwalks was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a man screaming in pain. Obviously catching his attention, Flynt reflexively took a quick detour in his path to jog around the corner.

“Stop wiggling! You’ll just hurt yourself even more.”

“AAAAAHHH!”

Below a tall fishing boat was a man collapsed onto the dock with a tall muscularly-built woman kneeling over him. She looked a couple years younger than Flynt, with short purple hair and dressed in scrubs.

“Why did you climb up there with no one around?” the woman growled. “Idiot! You’re lucky I was walking by when you fell.”

The woman spotted Flynt and waved him over. "Hey, you!" She called, flashing a mouth full of sharp teeth. "Help me hold him down so I can check his leg." It was obvious she was a reptile Faunus from the scales on her face, and her size invoked a monitor lizard. After a moment of hesitation that he scolded himself for, Flynt rushed over to help her however he could.

“He’s not going into shock, is he?” Flynt asked, grabbing the man by the shoulders to keep him from thrashing.

“Probably not. He’s just a whiner.” The Faunus woman pulled out a medical pair of scissors from a small bag she was carrying with her and cut away the pant leg to see the wound. “See! Not even a compound fracture.”

“But it’s not supposed to look like that,” the man sputtered.

“Well, yes, it’s broken.”

“June, you used to be such a nice girl.”

“Then, you decided to jump around up on top of the sail, so now you get angry June!”

The man mumbled another whine or two as the komodo girl, June, seemed to realize how unprofessionally hostile she was toward a wounded man.

"Sorry... Don't worry, we'll carry you to the clinic," she said as an embarrassed red blush spread around her scales. "Is that all right?"

Realizing the last part of that was directed at himself, Flynt nodded. They linked their arms under the man as he held onto both their shoulders and two-person carried him off the docks toward the rickety buildings.

“It’s not too far from the docks,” June said. “I’m the nurse there, so I have a key.”

“Not a problem,” Flynt replied. He looked over at her again. Faunus based on reptiles (or anything that wasn’t a mammal, really) were rare. There was a much higher chance of failure for those types--if the surviving historical records were to be believed.

Shortly after the calamity, as the wave of Grimm overran human civilization, a group of geneticists decided to modify humans so they could survive the new world. All the strengths of the animal kingdom in a population to ensure humanity's existence. It had mixed results, but almost two-hundred years later and a significant percentage of Remnant’s remaining human population had Faunus mutation. Lots of societal problems spun out from this, however. Over and over again the Faunus were an easy scapegoat for the Kingdoms. Even Flynt had to unlearn some prejudices he'd been raised with growing up in Atlas. It was infamous for being an unofficial capital of anti-Faunus sentiment, not that the other Kingdoms were much better, from what he'd heard. He liked to think he was over that hangup; he was working with a couple on the same ship after all. A pretty fast way to get over any residual prejudice was by working with them as closely as he had been.

The Faunus mutation was hereditary, so in theory, the entire human race would have the Faunus gene someday. That scared a lot of people, but there was no scientific proof Faunus were any “less human” than normal humans. They just had a couple of additions that made them stronger and faster than your average non-Faunus with night vision as a bonus. The days they were the majority of the population were still centuries if not a thousand years off, assuming humanity lasted that long without the Grimm finally finishing the job.

“I haven’t seen you around,” June asked him. “You come in on that big airship that docked this morning?”

“Yeah, that’s us. We’re a salvaging ship heading south for work,” Flynt said. Lying about what _Paradise_ was doing and going was becoming his natural response to casual conversation.

June looked at him skeptically. “You don’t look like a vulture.”

He brushed off the derogatory. Salvagers had a worse reputation inside the Kingdom. Outside Atlas's borders, they were an essential business, but inside they could be seen as organized grave robbers. "Needed money," Flynt responded, "but you don't look..." The words died on his lips. Flynt looked away, pretending he hadn't almost said something offensive.

“I don’t look like a nurse?” June finished for him, chuckling at how poorly he’d backpedaled.

“You said it, not me.”

“She’s good at it too when she’s not baring fangs,” the injured man said before turning to June. “You were such a respectable kid before the doc came along.”

“I’m still plenty respectable, thank you!” June growled. “Don’t make me bump your leg into the next light post!”

They eventually made their way to a local clinic. It seemed like just a small house had been refurbished into a clinic. June managed to unlock the door without dropping the man, and they both carried him inside and into a back room and carefully set him down on an examination table.

An examination led to June dealing with the broken fibula. Nothing too serious, but she wanted a cast over the leg after they set the bone before they sent him on his way.

“I’ll have Dr. Nero talk to your boss,” June told him. “You _will_ stay off this for several weeks until it’s healed.”

The man mumbled a “yes, ma’am,” and held back the tears from the pain setting in.

Flynt had stuck around to help. After a year of medical school, he didn’t need instructions that he should get ice and medication to stop inflaming, as well as which painkillers for this type of wound. The clinic, despite its outside appearance, was very well organized. Far more professionally than he’d expect from a small-town operation, which made it all the more familiar to his limited training.

Once the wound was treated, June looked back and forth between Flynt and wrapping the last of the cast, a second blush on her scaly face. “Sorry about dragging you into this. I get aggressive in emergencies.”

“No problem at all!” Flynt cheerfully said. “Glad I could help.” It did feel good to help. A taste of what he’d planned for his life was a comfort thankfully, one he welcomed happily.

“Are you a medic?” June asked. “I didn’t have to tell you anything. Except where the icebox was, of course.”

“That obvious?” A smile broke through as Flynt said it. “Technically, I’m really not. I took a year of medical school, but you probably have a lot more experience than I do.” His training, in hindsight, had been woefully focused on knowledge over hands-on skill. It was useful, but he still hesitated when it came to healing someone.

“Med school to vulture?” June asked.

Flynt laughed. “It’s a long boring story. I bet your situation is less complicated.”

“Long story short,” June said, “I met Dr. Nero when he moved to town a few years ago. He needed an assistant, I needed a job. Such is life. Turns out, I took to his training really quickly, so he let me move in and run the place when he’s out.” They finished up and sent the patient on his way on a pair of crutches pulled out of a broom closet, making sure he only left after they called a friend of his swing by to make sure he got home safely.

Flynt felt pride in his limited assistance, but with every passing moment, any joy in his system was being slowly replaced with a boiling dread. Like an indigestion that built in his stomach and reached up to choke him from the inside out.

There was no way the doctor Neon and Cinder were hunting for was Nero, was it? If he was hiding, like they suspected this Dr. Glauco to be, he wouldn’t choose his old occupation. That’d be stupid, irrational, practically begging for people to find you.

But Flynt knew, if he had the chance to completely walk away from helping people, would he? That was the real dilemma, wasn’t it? The need to focus on making money to go back home, versus helping Neon and everyone else Black Lily had tortured. If this Glauco was anything like him, then Flynt could easily see him quickly opening up a clinic to help people, even in incognito.

As if the world was responding to his anxieties, the focus of Flynt’s thoughts walked in through the front door. Dr. Nero, as June called him, was a medium-built man in his fifties with tan skin, slicked-back silver hair, and some light patchy beard that didn’t hide his face nearly as much as Flynt suspected he would like. He had warm brown eyes, the face of a man who looked forward to his work, and was unmistakably the same man Neon and Cinder were after.

“Morning June,” ‘Nero’ greeted his assistant. “I passed Cob out there. Good work.”

“I had a little help,” June gestured to Flynt. “This is Flynt, he helped me bring him here.”

Flynt felt like he was frozen in place. What should he do? What was the right thing? He planned on leaving Neon and Ruby’s quest to themselves. He was leaving soon. It was none of his business. Neon and Cinder could find this guy on their own. It was their mission, not his. All he had to do was walk away.

Dr. Nero happily shook his hand. Flynt managed to keep his cool as he introduced himself as a crewmember of a salvaging ship. June apparently was more impressed by his assistance than Flynt thought he deserved. The whole conversation blurred past him. This man was one of them. He was part of the anger that boiled out of Ruby and the pain that Neon buried deep inside.

Flynt couldn’t get the drunken words Neon said to him the other night out of his head. What she’d said about the many other victims Ruby and Neon had to leave behind during their escape. That they deserved peace, or at the very least justice. To be remembered or vindicated. That is what this was about, and in the face of that responsibility, how could he refuse?

When June and the doctor looked away, mid-discussion about their plans and appointments for the clinic, Flynt discreetly pulled out his Scroll and sent Neon a quick text:

_“Nero’s clinic. I found him.”_

As soon as he sent it, Flynt felt his stomach drop out under him. Nothing had happened, and yet Flynt felt like he had betrayed this stranger. A man who wasn't guilty of anything, as far as Flynt knew. He just ran a helpful small-town clinic.

But despite how sickening it made him feel, Flynt stuck around to make sure Neon and Cinder's target didn’t wander off.

Nero and June accepted his offer to help them for a short while. In his opinion, they accepted it a little too easily. As if they wanted to keep him around to gauge him or something. But it worked for Flynt's purposes, so he didn't think about it too hard. As he stuck around to prep for the day, Flynt discovered there were a few currently empty beds in a side room for any patient staying for an extended period. Upstairs, the doctor and June lived together to be close to their work. It didn't take long for a handful of settlers to come into the waiting room: A mother with her child coming into check-up on a newly healed broken arm, and a man with spiky orange hair with a face mask covering a nasty sounding cold.

“How much medical experience do you have, son,” Dr. Nero asked.

“Not much,” Flynt repeated honestly. He was standing by the entrance to the examination room, able to keep an eye on Nero as well as be visible when Neon and Cinder arrived from the front door. “Just a year of schooling. I don’t help that way in my current job.”

“Several fishing crews are looking for guys like you,” Nero said. “A year of education is probably enough to get a job on one of them.”

“That’s… not a bad idea,” Flynt said. He thought about it. It hadn’t been an option for him when he was looking for a job in the eastern settlements, but out here was a different situation.

Nero told Flynt what a fishing captain would probably pay an onboard medic, and it wasn’t bad. Not nearly as good as what Cinder gave him, but probably enough to send back home to take care of his brother if Flynt was careful. A town like this was a place where his talents, not his untrained Semblance, could thrive and reward him.

Nero sighed. “Honestly, they’ve been asking if I know anyone for the job, but we’re the smaller of the two clinics in town, so we don’t really have any connections. Not the network I got started in, but it’s not bad for someone like you.”

June laughed at the slightly shorter doctor. “We can’t all be as fancy as your Atlas hospitals.”

“Mantle,” he corrected. “Born, raised, and practiced. Don’t associate me with _them._ ” He turned back to Flynt. “Anyway, it’s good work. Injuries are common on a fishing crew. You can join a ship or bounce between them. Within a year, you could even set up shop near the docks and treat them as they come back in. Sorry if my pitch is aggressive, but there are opportunities here, and we could use all the help we can get if you--”

Flynt had gotten so immersed by the offer that he jumped when the front door opened, and Neon and Cinder strode in.

“That’s where you went, Flynt!” Neon called out, using the facade of a chance run-in with a friend to get inside. She brashly moved in with Cinder trailing right behind, giving him a pat on the back while simultaneously getting in close to see if this doctor was, in fact, their target.

With their arrival, any brief hope Flynt had for building a new life for himself in this settlement was dashed to pieces. He was beginning to feel that he couldn't help others without hurting himself, and regret filled him. If only he’d kept this to himself, he might have figured out how to move forward, but it was impossible to undo his decision. He’d become an accomplice to Neon and Cinder’s mission. Whatever happened next was his fault.

As soon as Cinder was in the backroom, Neon closed the door behind her. "That him?" Neon asked.

_So much for surveillance,_ Flynt thought. His sudden inclusion in this mission must have enabled them to jump straight to the confrontation-phase.

“It’s him alright,” Cinder said, stepping forward.

Neon nodded toward Flynt. “Nice find, dude.”

“Who are you people?” Dr. Nero said. His tone was more worried, recognizing the threat these newcomers posed. June was retreating to the back of the room, but her body language said she was ready to spring forward to protect the doctor at any moment.

“We’re here to talk about PENNY,” Cinder said cryptically. The name would be meaningless to anyone not involved with the Black Lily experiments. The final test to see if Glauco was who they suspected he was.

And he passed. The worst-case scenario was cemented as the doctor’s face paled. “June,” he whispered, “get the patients waiting outside to safety.”

“Why?” June asked. “Who are--”

“Do it!” He snapped at her. “Get them away from here and go to a friend’s house for the next few days. I’ll find you when we’re done here.”

June opened her mouth to object, but it hung open in shock--like she’d never seen his eyes so panicked or demanding. She obeyed, walking past the three suspicious outsiders and back out into the waiting room. As she passed Flynt, she gave him a pointed but confused glare.

As soon as she left, and they overheard her trying to get everyone to leave the waiting room, the doctor turned to Cinder, correctly clocking her as the leader. “You have a ship?” he asked quietly.

Cinder nodded.

“We need to go. Now!”

Cinder waved him off with her uncovered arm. “We just want some questions answered. I assume you defected--”

“Are you Vale or Vacuo?” He started asking his own questions but shook his head. “No time. It doesn’t matter. Just answer this: Will you give me protection?!”

Cinder stared at him. “Yes, we’re willing to make a deal in exchange for information.”

“Fine.” Glauco moved through the room, collecting a bug-out bag, money, and some additional supplies--the carefully planned route of a man prepared to run at a moment’s notice.

Neon crossed her arms and stared at his frantic actions. “The hell’s the rush, man. You’ve hidden this long. If you want to leave with us, then it’s better not to draw attention, you know?”

Glauco glared at her. “You have no idea who you’re investigating, do you?”

“We have a good idea,” Cinder bluffed.

"Then, your superiors better be smarter than the rest of you!" He finished putting on the backpack. "Clearly, you're unaware of their capabilities and resources. You people finding me before they did is impossible."

To be fair, Cinder had used an advanced supercomputer to run through the network to find this guy. 

The same type of advanced supercomputer the enemy had.

Flynt felt cold as the realization washed over him.

Cinder couldn’t hide her reaction to the same thought. Her visible eye went wide as the weight of Glauco’s panic finally set in. There was no way Black Lily hadn’t thought of what she had. They would be highly motivated to hunt down defectors, and unlike Cinder, they would know exactly who to look for. If one of their own showed up even in something as random as a travel video, Black Lily would know long before Cinder and her crew did.

Neon said it all for them. “Shit...”

“We’re leaving.” Cinder turned to Flynt. “Call Ruby and tell her to get the ship running!”

Flynt nodded and scrambled for his Scroll. Desperately, he pulled up her contact information and couldn't get the phone up to his ear fast enough once her number was dialed--Only to be met with silence, not even a dial tone.

He slapped the Scroll on the side before trying again. There was no signal. The Network was spotty or nonexistent out here in the boonies, but local calls across a settlement shouldn't be a problem. He had no issues messaging Neon a few minutes ago, after all. It was like something had suddenly jammed his Scroll's signal.

“What the hell?” Flynt mumbled as a knock on the now open door rang out behind him.

Everyone turned. Standing in the doorway to the waiting room was a lone figure. It was the young man who’d been in the waiting room with a cold. Or rather, pretending to have a cold. He wore a black sleeveless turtleneck and baggy cargo pants. Something casual and inconspicuous. Flynt and the rest of them had just glanced over his existence earlier. Only now did his slim but athletic body appear intimidating.

Peeling off his face mask, he stretched his jaw before smiling past the _Paradise’s_ crew toward the doctor.

“Hey, doc,” the man said with a voice both high and nasally. The voice of a cobra corning a pack of rats. “Don’t know if we ever met, but…”

Before anyone could react, he raised his arm toward the group. A flash of white energy erupted around his body, lighting up the corners of the examination room. Flaring heat spread through the crowd as power built and restrained itself in his hand like a backed-up hose, ready to be unleashed and rip through everything in its path.

“...Soleil says, hi!”


	11. Chapter 11

The clinic’s back wall exploded. It shattered into splintered wood and plaster, Aura energy rippling across and destroying it like it was mere tissue paper. Shattered glass hit the ground first, right before Cinder and Flynt, both landing on their feet, holding Dr. Glauco and Neon in their arms, respectively. Their Auras were flared and active as they ducked down to shield the others as rubble flew and scattered above into the buildings surrounding the alley.

Cinder grit her teeth and pushed a wooden beam off herself with her cybernetic arm. _Way too close,_ she thought. She and Flynt had only barely been able to react by activating their Auras in time, using their powers to throw themselves and their two defenseless companions through the back window before the blast ripped the room and building apart. The first to stand up, Cinder positioned herself in front of her crewmembers and the doctor as they all climbed to their feet.

Their attacker stared down at them all from the new hole in the wall. “I thought this was going to be a routine clean up!” he called down, a wide grin splitting his face and laying his amusement bare. His white Aura sparked around him as he revved it like an engine. “Looks like today’s going to be fun!”

“Go!” Cinder roared, pushing everyone ahead of her into a sprint down the alley. _Aura pulse abilities? This guy’s the real deal._ Cinder’s mind raced, analyzing the threat. She didn’t need to see a uniform or hear a proper introduction to know that this was another Atlas Specialist.

The Specialist cackled as they ran from him. He jumped down into the alley, letting his prey get a little ahead before pulling a pistol from the back of his pants and firing after them.

Bullets whizzed past just as Cinder and her crew reached the edge of the alley, back toward the settlement’s boardwalks. Unfortunately, they were on the wrong side of the town where they’d landed their ship. Cinder turned and blocked the next two shots with her mechanical arm. Claws out, her half cape shredded and discarded as she stood her ground, flaring her own orange Aura in a defensive pose.

“I’ll take care of this! Get him out of here!” She yelled an order over her shoulder toward Flynt. As a Semblance-user, he was their only chance of survival. All they had to do was double-back and cut through the settlement to get back to Paradise. He'd seen Cinder's power before, so he knew what she was capable of. Confident in his captain--as he should be--Flynt pushed Neon and Glauco forward and kept running, leaving Cinder alone to face the enemy.

The Specialist smirked, putting away his weapon and charged, unconcerned with the group getting too far ahead. 

Not unusual to find Semblance-users who prefer flaunting their power instead of using more practical or efficient means. It meant he was an idiot. He didn’t know Cinder’s Semblance or that it demanded close-quarters combat, but this was the type of unsubtle character who’d just blown out the side of a building just to show off. _A cocky idiot,_ Cinder thought, adjusting her assessment.

Cinder lunged forward for the clash, but the Specialist dodged her clawed swipe. He was fast, even for someone who’s movements were enhanced by Aura.

She swiped again, claws shredding a nearby wall as her opponent ducked back out of the way. He was more experienced than Cinder, but she only needed a single touch. One hit, correctly timed, and the battle was hers.

_Sloppy!_ Cinder cursed herself. She should have known this could happen, that they weren't the only ones tracking Glauco. Should have checked for Atlesian agents. At the very least should have played it safe. Cinder wasn't dealing with criminals and Kingdom Security anymore. This was the big leagues, and she'd acted like an amateur, too confident that things would play out as she'd planned. No proper preparation, just pretending the universe would bend to her machinations. Her old blind spot hadn't been overcome, after all.

_At this rate,_ a voice echoed in Cinder’s mind, _you’ll get them all killed._

No! Not her crew. Cinder wouldn't let this go any farther. She'd face the consequences of her shortsightedness and finish this now!

With a growl that showed teeth, Cinder charged, pushing down any doubt, and thrust her sharp cybernetic fingers forward like a spear.

It didn’t even phase the Specialist, moving with a sudden crouch and ducked under Cinder’s lunging claw. Cinder’s eye went wide as he moved inside her range in a flash. His smile broadened, full-mouthed as his Semblance shimmered, glowing with a burst of power just like when Cinder and Flynt activated their own Semblances.

_“Resonant Phase!”_ The Specialist announced as he elbowed Cinder in the chin.

Her Aura took the brunt of the hit--nothing serious. Cinder moved to sweep his legs out from under him, but he leaped back, head over heels in a mid-air somersault, landing as nimbly as a squirrel.

Something was already different about him. The edges and outline of his Aura wasn’t the constant steady glow it had been--That it was _supposed_ to be. It wobbled and bounced, the jagged lines of an audio track. With every vibration, a dark orange color mixed in with the white Aura like a dye was seeping into it.

The Specialist clenched a fist and moved in, a kick off the ground, sliding forward across with a straight punch thrown toward Cinder.

_Found it!_ Cinder spotted her opening. Whatever his Semblance was, she could take out his Aura before it manifested. Both of them were at full Aura defense, but her Semblance could wipe his out in one moment. A worst-case scenario would see her taking him down with her.

The punch shot toward her. There was no visible buildup of power in the fist, so it couldn't be his Semblance attack. He was oddly playing it safe. Cinder readied herself, preparing to activate her Semblance as soon as his strike made contact. She'd take the hit and pull him in close where he couldn't escape. Even without Aura strengthening her, anyone would struggle against her cybernetic limb. Then she'd activate _Crimson End_ and destroy his Aura. She just had to brace herself and grab hold as soon as--

Crunch.

Cinder was thrown out of the alley like a ragdoll. Her body fell and slid to the edge of the wet boardwalk that smelt like sea salt as her face pressed against it.

_What…_

_What the hell?_

One second she was ready to activate her ability, and then… and then?

Cinder tried to breathe, to gasp for air, and then the pain hit, shocking her brain back to work. She couldn’t hold her breath for any length of time. Whenever she tried to fill her lungs, instead of the sweet relief of oxygen, there was a stabbing sensation. Looking down, Cinder moved her flesh-and-blood arm to feel at her chest, and her eye went wide. 

“How…” mouth gape in disbelief, feeling at several cracked or shattered ribs.

“Your Aura has a good feel...” The Specialist stepped around Cinder, like a predator circling its injured prey. “...A bunch of anger all wrapped around a core of fear." As he looked at his hands, the new orange coloring bounced along with the strange audio-like effect surrounding him. After a few more seconds, the transformation was complete, and his entire Aura turned the same shade as Cinder's own life energy.

Cinder managed to pull herself up, her knees almost buckling under her, threatening to send her slipping into the bay. Pain stabbed into her lungs and chest, but… her Aura should have held… It _did_ hold. It still surrounded her body, keeping her together, and probably was the only reason she hadn’t blacked out from the blow.

_This is bad,_ Cinder thought, refusing to give in to panic, and stumbling forward with an unstable lunge. _I have to finish this._

She didn’t even see the next punch coming. A blow to the shoulder and her flesh arm was instantly dislocated.

Cinder felt it that time. Felt the burning crack of energy hitting her unprotected body, somehow passing right through her Aura’s shielding as if it had completely ignored it. Instead of friction, violent sparks clashing as both their life-forces competed to destroy the other, it had been completely one-sided. His Aura had passed through Cinder’s easier than passing through steam. Her body’s unease said that it felt as wrong as it was logically. She suddenly felt naked before a whirlpool of jagged rocks. Her nerves screamed, the destress almost enough to distract her from the pain of her wounds.

Cinder grit her teeth and unleashed her Semblance. Whatever he was doing to her, she couldn’t wait any longer. Black and red energy exploded in her mechanical claw as Cinder put her Aura’s strength into her legs and leaped forward.

_“Crimson End!!”_

Like a scorpion tail striking forward, her claws extended and dug into his arm as he lifted it to shield his face. She grabbed into his wrist and--

It didn’t connect. Only her bare metal arm was being blocked. His Aura vibrated with a hum under her artificial, unprotected nerves. All the fiery power of her Semblance was less noticeable than a summer breeze.

Somehow, this Specialist couldn’t be touched by Aura, offensively or defensively. Negating the one condition of her ability. It was supposed to be a trade-off. If her Aura couldn’t come in contact with another in time, then--

_Crimson End_ exploded, rebounding to the only source of available Aura: Its own user’s. The blinding blast of fire engulfed Cinder’s Aura and shattered it instantly as it spread around her.

Cinder was sent sprawling limply to the wooden boardwalk with a heavy thunk. The shock from a full Aura being instantly shattered combined with her injuries no longer being numbed by healing power was too much for her. She could feel her clothes and skin faintly scorched from the blast. Her ears rang in agony, but she could barely hear the sound of waves lapping against the boardwalk over the sizzling chunks of her Aura-energy burning away into ash.

The Specialist hadn’t expected a sudden and conclusive self-destruction. He was confused but not hurt, so he didn’t really care, especially now that his opponent’s Aura was completely spent. His Aura’s orange coloration that resonated with Cinder’s faded, returning to its blank featureless white.

Crouching down, he grabbed Cinder by her hair as she let out an involuntary cough of blood that dripped down her chin.

Cinder felt weak. Focus. Keep it together. How long had she lasted against this Specialist? Forty seconds? Probably less. Either way, the turn hadn’t gone long enough for her two crewmembers to get across the settlement and run away in _Paradise._

The Specialist curiously looked Cinder over, brushing the hair out of her face, revealing the older burns and the eyepatch. “Weird. Who the hell are you supposed to be?” he wondered to himself. He pulled out his pistol, tapping back against his shoulder. “We didn’t think Glauco made contact with anyone. Figured he was smarter than that, or we would have found him sooner.”

Cinder mustered the strength to grit her teeth, her eye-opening wide. She’d learned a long time ago that pain could strengthen her as much as it could cripple her. Pushing through the agony to the point it became fuel, Cinder sucked in a breath, filling her crushed inward chest.

With a desperate push, she shot her robotic arm against him as hard as she could. It was enough to break his hold. He hadn’t expected that much force, either underestimating or forgetting about the advanced combat prosthetic she wore.

As soon as Cinder was free, she kicked backward. Her legs were still uninjured, at least, and she used the last of the strength left in them as she fell off the side of the pier and into the water.

With a splash, Cinder was submerged in icy blackness.

Two muffled explosions flashed above her. Then two lines of streaking bubbles zipped down, one piercing Cinder’s leg before she was able to flow underneath the pier and out of sight from the danger above.

Cinder’s face emerged quietly from the surface of the water. Water had filled her mouth, and she couldn’t even cough it free properly as she bobbed with the lapping waves, her metallic arm threatening to drag her back under.

She heard a tsk before the Specialist’s voice called out. “Don’t go anywhere, alright? I’ve gotta kill your friends before they get out of range of the jammer. I’ll be right back for you.” Cinder heard him running off over the boarded ceiling that shuttered under a flare of energy as he used his Aura to leap away after the rest of his prey.

Unable to muster up the energy to move a muscle, Cinder felt like she was dead. An incomplete escape had sucked out all the will to fight she had left. Somehow, she was able to swing her clawed prosthetic up above the water, high enough into one of the pier's posts, sinking the claws into the wood. She locked it in place with an easy enough mental command, which, combined with her broken body's natural buoyancy, barely kept her mouth and nose above the surface.

Water was in her lungs. She couldn't even cough out a breath before she was half-drowned. The lines of light shining through the gaps in the wooden boards above were hazier and disappearing. It couldn't be night, it was still morning, and the clouds hadn't been that thick.

Cinder struggled in vain, squinting, and trying to see through her darkening vision. Her thoughts were sluggish, foggier, and before she completely passed out from exhaustion and shock…

_I told you, didn’t I?_ Cinder heard the voice again. She couldn’t help but feel nostalgic for that spiteful tone as the world disappeared. _You’re a raging wildfire, Cinder. No matter what you do, you can only destroy._

* * *

It was happening again, and Flynt hadn’t abandoned the crew in time. But Flynt didn’t have time to be introspective about his actions. He had to run, pushing Neon and the doctor ahead of him. There wasn’t enough time to think, he had to just focus on getting himself and his two charges out of there. He’d seen Cinder’s power before. She could hold off the new Specialist, just like she saved them from the last one. He had to just believe in--

“Flynt!” Neon’s eyes went wide as she looked over her shoulder.

Flynt glanced back. Their enemy, covered in white energy, was hopping building to building behind them. He paused, scanning the streets for his quarry, who all ducked into an out-of-sight sidestreet and kept running.

“How did he catch up so quickly?” Flynt asked. “Where’s Cinder?”

Neon didn’t respond, focusing on their escape and wordlessly confirming an impossibility.

_How? She was so powerful._ Deep down, Flynt was sure she could have handled any threat that came their way, but it hadn't even been a minute since she yelled at him to take the others and run.

And he’d left her to die.

Neon led the group now, practically pulling Flynt forward with the doctor, a determined and angry focus in her eyes. It wasn’t the first time she had to leave someone behind, after all. They had to run, or Cinder’s sacrifice would be for nothing. Yes, he didn’t know she was dead yet, and he wouldn’t believe that until he saw for himself.

The occasional settlement resident peeked out of their homes or stepped to the side, looking in confusion as they raced through the twisting and cramped backstreets. They had to get through this maze to the other side of the island. The doctor knew the way and, combined with Neon’s instincts, led them in a relatively straight path.

Probably too straight of a path, because quickly, they heard something tearing up shingles and wooden roof tiles in pursuit. A pulsing source of power was coming up behind them unnaturally fast.

The doctor jerked and pulled Neon and Flynt into the cover of an alley. Neither of them needed to ask why, but they were still surprised. The doctor had guessed when he would catch up and spot them faster than either of them had, and knew exactly where to hide. The benefits of a home-court advantage: you knew where to hide.

Following the doctor’s lead, all three clamped their hands over their mouths, suffocating under their own grips to not let out a single sound to reveal themselves. Flynt’s Aura kept him up, but the doctor and Neon’s lungs must have been burning before they all heard the Aura-enhanced leaps close-in. A flash crossed overhead as the Specialist raced over them over the rooftop.

_Damn it!_ Flynt thought, catching his breath. He didn’t know what to do. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out what ship they came in on, even if they managed to get away. He felt like the walls of the alley were closing in, leaving no easy way out.

Neon peaked out, trying to get a good look out of the alley to see if the coast was clear to move or not. Both she and the doctor had escaped from these people before. Flynt was the third spinning wheel they had to drag along, even if he was the only one with enough power to protect them.

“I hope you have a better plan than running from a faux Semblance-user,” Glauco said, desperate sarcasm leaking from his tone.

“Our ship is at the landing pad,” Flynt gasped out, trying to sound confident. “If we can get there, we have another Semblance-user that can protect you. She’s trained to take down people like Specialists.”

“You should have brought her with you.” Glauco laughed defeatedly, knowing the chances of them sneaking all the way through more than half the settlement undetected.

Flynt glanced at Neon, who only shook her head. She didn’t have a plan yet either.

Their shared despair was interrupted when Glauco grabbed Flynt by the shoulder. “Listen to me, son. He’s after me. If I don’t make it out, you _need_ to get this information back to your government. Do you understand?”

More guilt flooded into Flynt. He would drown in it quickly if he wasn’t careful. But he nodded, playing along with the misunderstanding.

“You have to investigate Idris Garnet, the governor of Machina. He’s the political spearhead of the group. By now they’re probably close to setting up the infrastructure to mass-produce the next model of the android. He was brought in by Goldsong and--”

There was an explosion above as the Specialist reappeared, shooting between the walls of the alley, ripping them down with him as he landed like a falling comet.

Flynt was only barely able to thrust a Split out of his chest to tackle the doctor out of the way of attack. The original was knocked back by the explosion of Aura energy and tumbled into Neon as they both limply rolled out onto the street, his Aura shielding him from the brunt of the attack.

Pulling himself to his elbows, Flynt stared up at his doom, standing straight-backed with hands in his pockets in the center of the alley. On the other side of the Specialist, the second Flynt had already gotten Glauco on his feet and running., The Split only spared a nervous glance back to him and Neon before sprinting around a corner.

The Flynt on the ground started to sit up, but as he moved, the Specialist turned on him and aimed his pistol right at his chest.

There was a good five meters between them, not enough to dodge a gunshot--not that Flynt could do that in any other situation.

“Flynt…” Neon let out a pained grunt, staring between him and the gun. She was gripping her ankle--must have twisted it in the explosion and fall. Running without him was no longer an option for her.

Flynt was half sitting, half crouched. He froze, not wanting to goad a shot from the Specialist. The gun was still aimed at Flynt's heart, and he was a little confused about why it hadn't been fired yet.

Nonchalant to the point of laziness, the Specialist glanced back over his shoulder. “Conjuring clones, huh?” he mused to himself. “I wonder which is the real one? Did you leave to protect your target or stay to protect the woman?

The Specialist looked them over again before recognition filled his eyes.

“I know you...” He said at Neon. After a moment, he smiled like he was greeting a half-forgotten schoolmate.

Neon returned a glare, visibly recognizing him as well. Even Flynt could tell she was itching to reach inside her jacket and whip out her own hidden pistol, but she stayed her hand for the right moment.

“You’re one of the stress testers, aren't ya?” The Specialist let out a mocking laugh. “The boss ripped your Aura out of you to test the limits of an artificial host. I saw that one! It popped like a balloon. Poof! Total waste of a sample.”

Neon snarled. Her irises narrowed, and the hair on her tail went stiff. She could barely keep herself from trying and failing to pounce and claw the Specialist's eyes out.

“Kane got sloppy cleaning you all up after your little escape attempt.” The Specialist shook his head in disappointment. “I can’t wait to get back to base and rub it in his face!”

Flynt saw what he was about to do and lunged sideways with a pulse of Aura as the Specialist turned and pulled the trigger to put down Neon. The bullet grazed off his Aura as he tackled Neon out of danger.

Without losing a moment, Flynt put himself between Neon and the shooter, searching for a way to avoid the next bullet, only to see that the Specialist was already gone. He'd disappeared in a burst of white Aura as he turned and ran off in the other direction, chasing after Flynt's Split and the doctor.

“I’ll be back for you two later, haha!” The Specialist called out behind him as his footsteps chased after the others.

_Damn it!_ Flynt looked back to Neon, gripping the end of her leg. It must have been a worse sprain than he’d thought. There was nothing he could do to make her able to run in mere moments, let alone manage to keep up with Aura-users.

“Go!” Neon snapped at him. She clawed at the wall and clumsily stood up on one foot. “I’ll catch up. _Go!_ ”

With a nod and a burst of speed, Flynt charged after the Specialist, leaving Neon and her furious expression behind. Back in the maze of tight streets, Flynt grazed against and ran into several walls, cushioned by his shielding, but it still slowed him down. He didn't have much experience Aura-running, but he had to keep the doctor safe. That was his purpose. Not for the mission or information on Atlas's crimes, but because a man would die if Flynt failed.

Flynt had trained and studied to prevent things like this, learning the art of medicine to save lives, but he’d always ignored his powers. He’d thought he couldn’t find a way to use it to help people. Idiot! Of course, the doctor's life would rely on the one aspect of Flynt he'd neglected.

Far ahead, two shots rang out. Flynt’s heart sank with dread, but he kept running, picking up more speed. There was still time. If he kept going, he could make it!

Flynt broke out of the alley into a large intersection where a handful of residents were running out from.

The doctor was in the center of the street, a fresh bullet wound in the arm, lying next to the collapsed body of Flynt’s Split.

The Specialist rose his pistol and shot twice more into the air, driving off the last of the civilians. The street became deserted except for the doctor, the Specialist, and both Flynts.

“Soleil always gets mad when I kill civs,” the Specialist commented as if to dissuade Flynt from thinking he was a decent guy. He placed a boot over the fallen Split. “What’s _your_ deal, man? _Resonant Phase,”_ he declared and crushed it.

The Split shattered. The fragments and energy spread in a wave under his foot.

Flynt winced. The memories of the destroyed Split absorbed back into him: The Specialist had caught up way too fast, shooting both Flynt and the doctor, knocking them both down helplessly before he was crushed to death by the Aura-fueled stomp. The second set of memories threatened Flynt’s focus, but he resisted the light headache and kept his attention on the threat.

The Specialist’s Aura shifted and vibrated, taking on a blue tint as if it had been stained by the shattered Split. It wobbled, like sound waves or the image on a heart monitor, pulsing into a vibrating mess that hummed in Flynt’s direction.

_That’s a Semblance,_ Flynt thought, clenching his fists. Whatever it was, it must be how he took Cinder out so easily.

The Specialist smacked his lips and blew out of his mouth like he’d eaten something a little too spicy. “Little electric there, man! Not sure about this…” The Specialist rolled his shoulders. “It’s like you’re trying to hold up the world on your own. Oh well, you won’t have to for much longer.”

With a shrug, he walked over and put a boot on the doctor’s neck. Glauco let out a choking gasp as the Specialist checked his ammo.

“Always messier than they say it will be,” he said to himself. “That’s why I like going on missions with Beryl.”

“Stop!” Flynt cried on instinct. A desperate plea was the only thing he could think to do. He felt like an idiot as soon as it came out.

The Specialist was amused. “OK? Now I’m interested.” He ground his boot deeper into the doctor’s throat, the man beneath him clawing at the Aura-protected leg. “Make your case, Conjurer. Explain why I shouldn’t blow this defector’s brains out.” he crossed his arm, pistol still pointing down at the doctor, finger on the trigger.

Flynt’s bafflement stuck the words in his throat. He had to reach through to this man, but Flynt wasn’t a talker. In the past, a healer, an artist, musician... never a hostage negotiator. He didn’t know how to intimidate someone like Cinder could, or how to judge a situation like Neon did, and he certainly couldn’t match Blake and Ruby’s individual experience. Out of every member of _Paradise’s_ crew, he was the least qualified to deal with this.

But Flynt had no choice.

“We'll leave him!” Flynt wanted to plan out a proper rebuttal, but the words just started sputtering out. He was barely even conscious of them. “He wasn’t hurting anyone or selling your people out. There’s no reason you have to kill him. Both of us can just leave him alone, and--”

A gunshot. It echoed around and back from the buildings surrounding them.

What had once been the doctor’s head split open.

The Specialist sighed. Looking like he’d stepped in something unpleasant, he moved off the corpse and wiped his now bloody boot on a cleaner part of the street.

He then looked back up at Flynt.

“Good try, man… Flynt, right? A bit of advice: You should offer better incentives than just telling people what they can or cannot do.”

Flynt was frozen as he stared at the street, unable to pry his eyes away from the corpse, blood dripping from it into a splattered pool. He wished he could flinch away in horror, but his eyes were stuck wide open, taking in the brutality.

“Not a loss,” The Specialist said. “He was a coward who ran away the first chance he could after seeing what he shouldn’t. He didn’t have the stomach to do what needed to be done. He’s nothing like you… who will die on his feet, at least.”

Flynt could barely hear the Specialist.

What he looked at used to be a kind man.

A man who risked his life to keep helping people.

The type of man Flynt could have looked up to once.

A man who was what Flynt wanted to be, lay dead in the street. His body mutilated and discarded like trash.

Bullshit... What was the point? What was the point if you do everything you can, and then some jackass ended you like it was nothing? Like life and death were easily discarded novelties. It was like the punchline to a bad joke. Haha, take a bow. It is all pointless, so don’t even try.

All of the guilt that had steadily built inside Flynt for days was gone in a flash, replaced by pure, righteous fury.

Bullshit!

_Bullshit!_

No! Shut your mouth. That’s not allowed. You don’t get to judge and discard a man’s life like that!

Flynt’s Aura burst into blue flames. The street shook under his feet. Windows rattled from the displaced air as Flynt’s glare burned up toward his enemy.

The murderer’s Aura hummed, as if in tune with the power flaring in front of it. The murderer smiled and put away his pistol. It was a weapon of efficiency and laziness, but his new opponent looked too fun to even consider that option. “I like those eyes, man,” he said as a genuine smile finally appeared, excited for their clash, even if it was short. 

Brimming with power, it was like Flynt had woken for the first time since he’d heard about his brother’s condition. He’d been sleepwalking until this very moment, the horrible injustice enough to finally snap him out of his stupor. Flynt was done with that. He was finally awake, ready to destroy the evil in front of him.

Flynt charged, launching across the street with his arm raised.

The Specialist fell into a stance, ready to meet him.

They were incompatible, so the trial over the worth of a man’s life would be settled by their duel.


	12. Chapter 12

Flynt rushed across the intersection as he shot two Splits out from either side of him. All three broke into a sprint, charging full speed to fight their opponent together.

_Let’s see what it will take to overwhelm you!_ Flynt thought, eyes narrowing.

The murderer punched toward the first Split he could reach. The fist hummed with a blue glow as it made contact with Flynt’s Aura. The sensation sent an unnerving feeling through Flynt’s whole body, like all his veins were squirming, desperate to get away from him. 

Flynt ducked. He kept his footwork loose and danced to the side, the attack only grazing his arm and tearing off his sleeve with the strike.

All the Splits’ right sleeves exploded in a puff of tatters at the same moment, forcing them all to flinch in unison.

Forcing down a spike of panic, Flynt kept his cool, and all the Splits put their distance between themselves and the murderer. Losing momentum was a loss, but after that disturbing sensation, he would happily risk it. If he didn’t fight smart, he’d end up defeated like Cinder.

Flynt felt at his arm and his destroyed sleeve. That shouldn’t have been possible. The murderer’s attack had somehow moved _through_ his Aura, not pierced, or even damaged it. He would have double-checked he had it activated if it weren’t for the glow around his body, and the presence of two Splits, already proving that.

The murderer smirked, moved his hands in his pockets, waiting for a Flynt to make the next move. Excited to see him squirm but impatient to get to the groveling.

_Not going to happen!_

Flynt mulled it over for as long as he could spare, none of his Splits glancing away from their enemy. The murderer had not only moved through Flynt's Aura, but Flynt had felt the process. It was strange in that it was familiar and alien, so much so that Flynt hadn't processed it at first. The mirrored blue Aura, pulsing with humming energy, seemed to pull at Flynt’s own before it moved through it with no resistance. There was a moment before the attack made contact with his sleeve that his body and Aura panicked. It felt like preparing to put a hand on a scalding surface. A body and mind instinctively know when it's being put in danger. It also understands the wrongness of an enemy's Aura phasing through its lifeforce when it should have been repelled by defensive energy.

_That must be his Semblance,_ Flynt thought. _That’s definitely something that could take down Cinder if she wasn't prepared for it._ If the murderer’s Semblance made it so he could move through other Auras, Flynt’s protection was useless against any attacks. One mistake, and he wouldn’t have shielding to protect his physical body. His arm would have been shattered or torn off if that earlier punch had connected. Flynt started thanking whatever gods were out there that he'd been trained in combat before he developed an Aura. He hadn't been conditioned to take blows to the Aura-shielding, and it had saved his life.

With a blink, Flynt mentally suggested all the Splits form back into a single body. They needed to regroup to share this information. None of their determination had wavered, but they’d been careless. This murderer was easily twice as dangerous as Flynt had expected, and he couldn’t--

It had only taken seconds for the Flynts to discover the scope of the danger and reform, but that had been long enough for the murderer to get impatient and charge the last Flynt available.

Flynt ducked the swipe and countered with a jab to the ribs, pouring his weight and Aura's power into the strike. If he was lucky, the power went both ways, and he would be able to hit the murderer’s physical body as well.

He didn't have high hopes but still groaned in frustration and pain when his bare fist struck against an Aura shield. It felt like punching a concrete wall--flesh against stone. Not only could the Semblance ignore defensive Aura, it ignored offensive Aura as well. Flynt's attacking power had melted around the murderer like a spray of mist, only Flynt's physical body making contact against the blue shield covering the murderer's body. His Aura couldn't even protect his hand from the impact. This was a true one-sided match.

Twice as dangerous? Forget that. This was quadruply more dangerous than expected. If Neon was around, she would have cracked a joke about how Flynt was supposed to be the _multiplying_ threat.

Flynt backed out of the murderer’s range. He shook his hand. Luckily his Aura healing was still working--the semblance couldn’t negate that-- and numbing the pain from the impact.

The murderer rushed in for another sequence of swipes. He wasn't relying on any proper form, just attacking with broad strikes and kicks, each amplified with a speed and strength that ripped through the air, and also Flynt if they made contact. Flynt still had his Aura-enhanced reaction time. The enemy's Semblance couldn't take that, but he had no way to defend or attack. The only tool he had left was evasion. If Flynt ran, there was a chance he could escape now that he was on his own--no one left to immediately protect, but that thought could never take root in Flynt’s mind. The soil of his consciousness was inhospitable. Flynt had to try. He had to bring this enemy down.

The fear was enough to distract him, however. Flynt watched a new punch get thrown toward his skull faster than he could dodge. The murderer was sloppy, but he was far more experienced in actual combat than Flynt might ever be. How could sparring in a gym compare to this monster?

Heat crackled off the fist, energy Flynt's Aura couldn't protect him from. The same scream of nerves arrived as the copied blue energy pierced the Aura covering Flynt’s body. The attacker’s face showed a smirk, preparing to see fear or despair in his prey’s final moments before his skull was caved in.

With a flinch, Flynt shot a stumbling Split out his back. Personally out of danger, Flynt reached out and reabsorbed the original just in time before the punch could impact. The superpowered attack struck empty air, a blast of power crackling through the air as the new Flynt crouched and rolled to evade.

_Too close!_ Flynt gasped. Yeah, that sensation was definitely from the enemy’s Aura phasing through his own. From the visual shape to its abilities, this Semblance seemed to be frequency-based. Apparently, Auras have frequencies? Gods, Flynt was not the person to bring to a Semblance fight.

“Pieced together how unfair this is yet?” the murderer asked. “I’ve already resonated with your Aura, thanks to the clone I killed earlier. You need to be more careful where you leave those things.”

_This asshole loves to talk, doesn’t he?_ Flynt thought. He had to drown all that out. Nothing this scum had said all day mattered, so he could neglect it. Flynt had to look at the situation through a different lens. He had to find a way to spin the one-sided nature of this battle against his opponent.

_My Aura can’t protect me. Attacks and defenses are useless…_ Flynt rummaged through everything he knew about his opponent’s abilities again. It all felt too negative and hopeless. _Splitting apart won’t help me if he can reach through my Semblance’s effect. He can kill me without even scratching my Aura reserves…_

No, that was wrong. At least, the way Flynt was viewing it was wrong.

_It’s not that my Aura can’t protect me,_ Flynt realized. _If he can’t touch it, he can’t damage it either. My Aura won’t drain defending or doing damage, which means that all its efforts can go elsewhere and if that’s the case……_

Flynt had to stifle a laugh. If all that was the case, it meant he could finally go all out.

Ridiculous, Flynt was actually about to indulge in a thought he never took seriously, even at his most indulgent. He was about to push himself in ways he’d always thought of as a joke.

Flynt deeply inhaled, and shot three Splits out of himself--finally going on the offensive.

* * *

Key hated boredom. That didn’t make him special or anything, just that he’d observed that other people could put up with so much more shit than he ever could. Lives wasted on day-to-day repetitions, mindless tasks with no personal gain in it. It was all so pointless with nothing tantalizing about it. But if it was for Beryl, Key could handle it. Key could handle anything for him. He'd stuck around that beautiful dumb-ass their entire lives, so naturally, he joined the Black Lily Specialists alongside him. Neither of them liked splitting up to do solo jobs, but sometimes it had to happen. Beryl was the “true believer” of the pair, but he wasn't subtle enough for laying low inside a settlement. So Key was sometimes assigned to go out alone to kill some cowardly defector, scouting out what they knew or had leaked before silencing them. He hadn’t expected an escaped test-rat to show up with a whole crew of her own, let alone one that was recorded dead like, over a year ago? When did Kane say he finished cleaning up all the escapees?

It didn’t matter. Key’s day had turned exciting. What was supposed to be a simple clean-up had changed into a duel to the death. It was a hopeless fight for Key's opponent, but who didn’t like playing with their prey? It was still enough to give Key a nice rush, a thrill making the pleasure centers of his brain bloom with activity. The fun couldn’t last forever. Soon he’d have to finish toying with the conjurer, then double back to snuff out the Faunus and the cyborg. Then he could go home and rub it in Kane’s face that he had finished his job for him. “Guess who found the kitty you were supposed to kill, Kane?” Knowing Kane was sloppy almost felt as good as it would be to throw that asshole under the bus. Key was really looking forward to it.

The Flynt guy made more clones of himself. Four of them now, counting whatever one was the original, were rushing around Key. There was no danger from whichever were the three Aura-constructs. As long as he had his Semblance activated, they would fade around him like smoke. Key could just dance through the copies until he made contact with Flynt’s physical body. Easy-peasy.

_Resonant Phase_ was one of those self-inflicted transformation-types. After brief contact with a target, it replicated the frequency of their Aura and proceeded to completely ignore it. The copied Aura could no longer hurt him or damage his own life force. It couldn't deflect his Aura either, turning any one-on-one fight into a one-sided slaughter. A perfect ability for an assassin’s job. That said, he still couldn't use his Aura-pulse abilities while his Semblance was active, and it could only copy one Aura-frequency at a time, so against multiple opponents, Key didn't have any advantage. If both this Flynt guy and the scarred cyborg had taken him on at the same time, he could have been in trouble. Good thing they’d prioritized the soon-dead doctor over fighting.

With multiple Flynts rushing around, Key waited, leaving himself open with plenty of protective Aura to spare. Finally, after a few long seconds, the real one moved in and got in another hit. Weak, the strength of an unenhanced punch. Barely even a chip off Key's Aura, exactly what he was waiting for.

Key turned, keeping an eye on the one who’d made contact, and rushed him. Ignoring the rest, he ran after his target. Flynt was slipping through and around other clones, acting like a human cup and ball trick, but failing to outmaneuver Key's Aura-enhanced reflexes.

This Flynt’s determination and anger was cute, but he’d be crushed all the same. And Key would enjoy every moment of it.

Key swung for his target as soon as he got close. He would have brought one of those hunter-class weapons if it weren't hard to stay incognito while dragging around a giant transforming hammer or bazooka. Not that he’d trained much with any of them, that was Beryl’s job. Besides, he only needed one good punch against Flynt’s vulnerable skull or his to barely press his fingers against his neck to finish this one. Most Aura fights were a tiresome wait until one of the fighters’ Aura weakened enough to break. Key preferred these things fast and exciting, and he’d been given an Aura that happened to enable that part of him. Playtime was over, and all he had left to do was actually grab onto this slippery fucker now that he knew which one was real.

Flynt looked panicked, which was understandable. He’d been found out. He kept trying to send out more clones, two for every one he absorbed, anything to get his hunter to lose focus on him. Nothing worked. Soon, a half-dozen had osmosed in a rushing circle around them both, all dodging out of the way of Key's path as he honed in on the only one that mattered.

“They’re made out of your Aura, remember?” Key laughed. “I can ignore anything a conjurer-class throws at--”

Something struck the back of his head. A weak hit. Just like the previous ones. Then something else hit Key from the side, this time against the shoulder.

It was nothing concerning, just a widdle out of his Aura protection. He’d barely think about it, but…

_Did I mix up which was the real one?_ Key thought. He looked away from the one he thought was real, eying the group of almost two dozen clones. Had Flynt already created that many? Key’s eyes darted around, looking for the one who had hit him--when his original suspect rushed forward and planted a punch right in the jaw.

A solid hit. But again, flesh against Aura. Barely any damage. But… he for sure hadn’t lost track of that one. That was impossible. That’s not how Aura worked. Conjurer’s created Aura-constructs. Aura constructs couldn’t hit Key if he was resonating with them. And there couldn’t be more than one Flynt.

“What the hell?” confusion slipped past Key’s earlier mocking confidence. He stared back at the original Flynt, who had dodged backward to avoid any returning blows.

“You’re probably right about conjurers,” A Flynt to the side growled. He and all twenty-plus twins readied themselves, planting their feet and raising their fists in mirrored fighting stances. “But I never said I was a conjurer!”

With a shared burst of blue energy, a spark crackled between all of them. All the clones charged, crying in a united voice: _“Identity Paradox!”_

A flurry of punches struck Key from all sides.

Baseline power, all of them, but there were so many, a dozen impossible blows enveloping the Specialist.

Key swiped an arm to bat them all away. But each time his Aura-covered attacks nearly hit a clone, it flinched and was absorbed into a nearby ally. He punched at another, the Aura covering his fist started effortlessly phasing through the glow surrounding the clone, only for it to go wide-eyed and vanish. Its form shrunk away into another neighbor, who punched back. It chipped the Aura covering Key's arm as two more went for his legs and another struck his spine.

_How can he control all of them at once?_ Key thought, each failed attempt to attack any of the clones, making his movements more frantic. _They can’t be automated. Their reaction times are too fast for that. No one has the mental capacity to control that many clones!_

Key tried another punch, a fast straight one direction in front of his body. The clone Key aimed at split in two, both charging in around his outstretched arm and punched him in the stomach. They escaped, absorbing into nearby Flynts to the sides when Key tried to crouch and sweep their legs out. All his frantic moves and he couldn’t even touch one of them!

_Paradox…_ Key’s mind finally settled on what his host of opponents had called out. _He couldn’t mean… He can’t mean he has one of those!_

Key had heard of them, a Semblance type so rare, most people didn’t know they existed, and the rest thought they were only a myth. Paradox-type: the category egghead scholars put reality-altering Semblance powers in--The realm of time manipulation, portals, and teleportation.

And it all clicked for Key, why all the clones could hit his Aura.

They weren't Aura-clones. Not a single Flynt was a replication. He was existing simultaneously across _all_ of them.

Each copy... no, they weren't just copies. Flynt's Aura did something far more bizarre. It created a paradox that allowed Flynt's body to be in a perpetual state of existing and not existing across every copy of himself. As long as his Aura was activated, Flynt could control which clone his physical body manifested in. It didn't matter which Flynt created another or how many there were: Flynt was simultaneously hiding in all and none of them.

Key didn’t know if he understood in a flash of brilliant deduction or as a side effect of resonating with the paradox-type. He’d heard of an old experiment dealing with quantum mechanics or something, involving whether or not a cat was alive or dead in a box until it was observed. Flynt’s existence was like that cat, in constant flux between all the duplicates. _That’s why he can hit me,_ Key thought. As long as his Aura exists, the real Flynt potentially exists in all of them. _Simultaneously across all twenty. He can dodge all my attacks because every Flynt is their own consciousness, as complex and valid as any of the others._ Each had the reflexes and will of an Aura-user, an Aura-user that hated Key and would do anything to bring him down.

Key's Resonant Phase could reach through Aura, so it could pierce the barrier that stabilized the paradox. It could force whichever one Key tried to kill to become the real one, “observing” it, in a way. In turn, whenever one attacked Key's Aura, it was forcing itself to become the "real" Flynt long enough to get a punch in before escaping and returning to a flux-state.

But that was also the weakness. If Key could hit _one…_ He only had to hit a single one, and victory would be in his grasp. At the very beginning he hadn’t just gotten lucky, he’d reached through the Aura, forced that clone to be the real Flynt while destroying the sleeve across all of them. Reaching through the Aura forced any clone to be the real Flynt, so killing him would end all of it. If one Flynt died, it would _have_ to be the real one.

_Resonant Phase_ was the counter to this paradox. Key had to keep that in mind. Swinging his body around, Key charged around the intersection, desperately throwing fists and kicks. Any Aura-powered physical contact would be enough. But it felt as useless as attacking a swarm of fish in a pool. All Key had to do was grab one. The only problem was that he was dealing with opponents who could appear and disappear on a whim, and that was challenging to say the least. They all darted around with the same strategy, with the will to snuff themselves out of existence if it meant continuing the fight for a moment longer. To what end? Key had been intimidated by the reveal of a paradox-type, but twenty or more Flynts scurrying around him were still easy to finish off. They couldn't even use any of their Aura to hurt--

Then Key realized his Aura was weakening. The glow around him was dimmer than it had when he'd confidently faced Flynt down at the beginning of this duel. Key had a hard time noticing at first. The punches and kicks all around him were so weak, after all, but each one was slowly whittling his Aura-protection down. Each attack from the Flynts was a mere percent, but with every passing second, with every passing punch, the swarms' attacks were adding up. It was flesh against a brick wall, but if you punched a wall enough, eventually, it would fall.

And a lot of Flynts were punching this wall.

Key screamed in rage. He spun a leg out. A wave of Flynts vanished, retreating into the safety of others out of range. Key punched the ground, chunks of cobblestone exploded up as he swatted and struck them into the swarm, taking out three. They shattered into puffs of swirling energy, but breaking them wouldn't be enough. It just denied a place Flynt could potentially exist, and the rest were splitting apart faster than Key could tear up the settlement's street.

He had to use his Semblance to reach through. The Semblance was the counter. But just a chunk of earth grazing one of the clones had been enough to destroy it. Each Aura covering each Flynt was shockingly weak. The tradeoff of multiplying probably halved Flynt’s Aura with every split.

“Against other Aura-users...” One Flynt yelled from behind Key’s right ear. Key swatted at it. As soon as his resonating Aura got near a Flynt, it felt the danger incoming and denied its existence by absorbing into an ally before physical contact could be made.

Another got a punch in on Key’s side. “...splitting up this far would be useless,” Flynt continued.

“Our Aura strength is weak enough that we’re almost as dangerous as a crowd of un-enhanced humans,” another said.

“We couldn’t even be a threat.”

“But against you, I’ll never lose Aura! So I can keep fighting for as long as I have to!”

“Because it's you, I can feel your _Resonant Phase_ before you can hurt me…!”

“...so I’m stronger than I’ve ever been!”

Key jerked his head around, trying to keep track of where the voice came from each time. Using the distraction, three Flynts rushed in and simultaneously got a solid punch in the Aura covering Key’s face.

A crack appeared, running down the side of Key’s Aura.

Key turned into a whirling storm of Aura-enhanced attacks. Two Flynts dodged as one absorbed into a neighbor to escape. Another split in two to avoid a kick.

Through the chaos, it didn't take long for Key to notice that Flynt's hands were covered in blood. His fists were clenched, red liquid dripped between the fingers and through his Aura. If each copy was the real physical Flynt, all at once, that meant Flynt’s body was taking damage from every unshielded attack against Key's Aura.

Not even his desperate rush could protect Key from the unnerving dread this gave him. He stumbled at the sight of it, not noticing one getting close and attacking the Aura at the back of his legs. The swarm moved around, faking Key out, charging in for a flurry of punches, covering for others, blood dripping from all the clones. It hadn’t taken long for the road to be stained with crimson drops of all the Flynts’ determination and shared agony.

_How far is he willing to go?_ Key thought. Flynt was supposed to break as soon as he saw his Aura couldn’t hurt him. He was supposed to be begging for mercy by now as Key personally showed him how unforgiving this world was to the weak.

From the look of those hands, at this rate, Flynt was going to sacrifice them just to win. He was approaching the point that Aura healing couldn’t fix that. _What the hell is this guy?_ Key thought. _Just grovel and die!_

Key had clocked the cyborg as the larger threat and was glad he took her out early, but this one… this one wasn’t human! He was supposed to run. If you were outmatched, you were supposed to flee or beg. That was the way of the world. That’s what he and Beryl had always done. They’d managed it until they earned the power they now held. But this one just powered through. The rules didn’t apply. What had been someone to toy with had become an incarnation of judgment.

Key wasn’t facing a man anymore. Hell itself had come for Key.

_They’re all faster than me,_ Key thought, catching a breath. _My Semblance moving through their Aura only lets him know he’s in danger, and he vanishes into another before I can break through the paradox and kill him. I can’t win like this._

For the first time in years, Key realized he was outmatched.

This was the power of a paradox-type, the potential of human will. The laws of this world that Key knew so well were trivial before it.

_Keep yourself together, moron! Panicking will do more damage than anything these Flynts can do._ Key wouldn’t let himself get killed. Beryl wouldn’t like to see him lose his cool from something like this, so he’d find a way out. They’d always survived together, so he couldn’t leave Beryl alone now. This little upstart wasn’t going to beat him that easily.

Just _one._ All Key had to do was exploit a single misstep. Statistically, Flynt splitting himself into twenty-plus made the chances of a fuckup exponentially higher. However, not a single Flynt faltered or left an opening. Was this fight actually boiling down to which would give out first? The collective will of this monster known as Flynt, or Key’s Aura…?

_That’s it!_ A smile appeared on Key’s face. _Good job, man. You got close, and you did a damn good job freaking me out with this distraction, but you said it yourself: Against anyone else, you’re useless. Now watch me tear your judgment apart like paper!_

Key let out a single laugh, unable to hide his sure victory, and shut off his Semblance.

_Resonant Phase_ winked out. The spiking waves in Key’s Aura calmed into a constant white glow. The blue coloring faded as he let go of Flynt’s frequency. He’d been too reliant on his Semblance--he’d remember that for the future. Key couldn’t move past Flynt’s Aura or the paradox anymore, but now, Flynt couldn’t sense him early and dodge his attacks. Now, he could tear every weak copy apart until only the last Flynt lay at his feet. Trapped in a single body that Key could rip the Aura off of.

Key turned, triumphant, ready to turn the tide before Flynt could catch on to the danger. He would overcome hell and finish what he’d--

All the Flynt’s vanished.

Key blinked in surprise. The street that had been filled with the constant sound of twenty-plus fighters dashing around fell into a quiet calm. There wasn’t any sign of the man. In a flash, they’d warped like they were stretching forward and disappeared.

_Where the--_

A shadow covered Key’s face as a bright glow illuminated from behind him.

Key jerked. In his blindspot, midleap, one Flynt remained, covered in blue fire. It blotted out the hazy sky, all the splits returned, and now a single Flynt burned with full power. Its arm raised and was thrown, dealing the final blow of the match.

* * *

All the Flynts vanished in an instant. They'd waited for this exact moment together, absorbing into one that was leaping at the murderer’s blind spot. With their entire pool of Aura-energy combined back into a single body, the full power of Flynt’s Aura surged, casting shadows around the street intersection like a shining star. The pain in Flynt’s hands and arms from the repeated strikes made him want to collapse, but he kept pushing himself. The memory of every Split flooded into a single brain at once. His eyes and skull burned from the strain, but he knew what he had to do. All of them had. Their collective purpose all drove the last one to land this final punch.

With a scream of agony slipping out of his clenched teeth, Flynt hit. They’d whittled this monster down, baited him into dropping his Semblance, and now that they were stronger than him, they finished it. The full power of his mostly undamaged Aura struck right into the murderer’s jaw.

The murderer’s Aura crunched like an eggshell under Flynt’s bloody fist.

An explosion of hot air rushed around them with a crackle of blue lightning. The murderer’s limp body shot down as the street cracked and exploded under him on impact. With a shower of dirt and shattered stone, the battle was over.

Flynt landed with wobbly feet on the uneven ground, fragments of white Aura clinging to his bloody hand. Everything in the street surrounding him was fuzzy. He couldn’t focus on anything with the blooming headache pounding in his skull. Flynt couldn’t feel his hands either. That probably wasn’t the headache’s fault, though. The whole fight, he’d run on pure rage and adrenaline, but he was numb now. He had nothing to keep him up anymore. He had trouble… moving his fingers. The hundred, maybe more, punches to an Aura-wall… hurt. It hurt. Even with Aura healing to help numb the pain shooting up his arm’s nerves, it hurt so much he wanted to curl up in the nearby gutter until it stopped.

Flynt tried accessing his medical knowledge, to think about what that effort would do to his hands. How much strain and damage could the delicate tendons and bones… He couldn’t worry about that right now. Couldn’t think either. The pain in his head was too much. It felt like his brain had exploded and was leaking out of his ears and eyes. All those Splits back at once... So many of them all squeezed back into one existence again.

_I have to find Neon…_ Flynt managed to piece his brain together enough to think of a goal. That was a good start. _I have to let her know--_

A hand shot forward and crushed Flynt’s throat.

Flynt gasped as he was lifted into the air. At first, the strength of the attack caught him by surprise, then, with a vibrating hum, the hand shifted past his Aura defenses, penetrating through the shield and gripped tight on Flynt’s bare neck.

He couldn’t move. He could barely think or panic, the new pain barely registering over the migraine. He tried Splitting as a reflex, but the hand that had breached the paradox kept any potential existences trapped in place.

Prying his eyes open, Flynt saw his enemy standing, lifting him high off the ground with one outstretched arm.

“Close…” The murderer spat onto the street, blood dribbling down his jaw. The jaw was bruised under his Aura... Aura that was cracked across his entire body but still barely held together through careful effort and focus from its user.

Through the haze, Flynt realized his mistake. It hadn’t been enough. He hadn’t whittled the Aura down to a point that the final punch could finish the job. He’d almost won, but through a mere percentage or two, he fell short…

No doubt it was the consequences of his neglected training. When it came down to life or death, justice or cruelty, Flynt wasn't good enough.

The murderer clenched his hand around Flynt’s throat, crushing it. Enough Aura was left clinging to the murderer to give him the strength to easily snap Flynt's neck in an instant. Suffocating him would be no effort.

Flynt tried to gasp, but the muscles just strained under the grip, leaving no space for air to slip through. He felt like his windpipe could pop any second. Screaming or begging seemed like the right thing to do, but nothing could come out but a dry pitiful grunt.

_I’m sorry…_ Flynt’s eyes were closing. The only thing Flynt could see--the last thing he would ever see--was the slowly growing malicious grin of his killer. _Mom… Dad… Ebon… Spark…_

Last thoughts of family, tears filled Flynt’s eyes, blinding him to everything but the end.

That was odd. Flynt was pretty sure he hadn’t cried since before Ebon got sick. What had he been doing this whole time?

_I’m sorry…… I couldn’t save…_

A crack filled Flynt’s ears. A pop, like a bone exploding into pieces.

Flynt collapsed to the ground, the grip letting him free. Eyes wide, Flynt gasped for air. Sucking in, the weight of it filling his lungs, it felt like he could drown in it. He coughed, his throat and chest burning as he looked up at his attacker.

The murderer was staggering back. There was a hole in the weakened Aura covering his head, and under it, a smaller hole had opened up in the side of his skull. Blood poured out.

Putting a hand to his head, the murderer looked at his fingers, coated in the red liquid. Slowly, he looked up to the side, toward the edge of the street.

“Y… Yo--” He stammered out, eyes clouded.

Another explosion. The murderer's Aura, dyed blue once again, shattered for good as another hole opened in his chest, and a burst of gore shot out the back. Two more cracks rang in Flynt’s ears as the standing corpse jerked from another impact to the chest and cheek right below the eye, for good measure.

The murderer’s limp body collapsed, mere feet away from where he’d executed the doctor.

It took all of Flynt’s strength to turn, even with Aura pumping him with energy again now that he was free of the death grip. He hacked out a cough, air passing through his raw throat, each gasp a shock that pushed him to the verge of puking.

His vision finally cleared, finally able to see Neon standing at the edge of the street. The Atlesian pistol she always kept hidden in her jacket was out. Four spent shell casings lay at her feet, and the barrel smoked in the cold air.

Neon’s glare lasted for as long as it took to steady her breath. Relief and catharsis flooded her face. Not letting the emotions overtake her, she turned in concern toward Flynt as she limped forward on her sprained ankle.

“Flynt!” she called. Visibly annoyed at how long it was taking her to walk the short distance, she finally reached him and kneeled down, cradling his head in her hands. Her eyes traced his injuries, his blood-shot eyes, the bruises on his neck, before she gasped at the state of his hands, bloody and broken. Torn apart under the still humming and strong Aura.

“Hey!” She not too gently slapped his cheek. “You still with me?”

“I--” Flynt stumbled with the words. His Aura was shocking him awake, unable to pass out, even if he wanted to. Instead of helping, it felt like it was stretching him apart. The pain was more vivid, the exhaustion all the more crippling. There was no masking anything that had happened, just the raw sensations flooding all his nerves.

“I… I couldn’t… I’m sorry!” Flynt turned away from her and weakly wailed out the words.

Neon followed his gaze as he stared at the corpse of the doctor.

“I’m sorry!” Flynt cried in a rasping whisper. Gripping his bloody hands to Neon, he sobbed against her arms as she hugged him back into her chest.

They lay there, the survivors with the dead, until every tear Flynt had saved from the last year was finally let free.


	13. Chapter 13

Flynt sat on the bridge as _Paradise_ roared into the clouds. He blankly stared out the front window, catching an occasional glimpse of the sea below. Despite how drained and exhausted Flynt felt, he was still wide awake, in a jittery haze. It didn’t feel real yet. He’d expected to die about four different times in the last two hours. That was a first for him. Even back at Hailstone during their previous run-in with a Specialist, or the emergency landing afterward, it all had happened so fast that it didn’t sit in at the time. To make things worse, Flynt felt more conscious now than he had for the last few months. This time, the feeling that he was somehow cheating by escaping from that settlement was smothering him.

Back in that intersection, after he’d managed to climb back to his feet, he and Neon and got away from the bodies before Atlas security arrived. It was a small, uneventful town, so they’d be slow to respond, but Flynt and Neon didn’t count on it. Neither of them could be around when the authorities arrived at the source of the gunshots to find two corpses lying in the middle of the street.

With the Specialist dead, the device he'd been using to block their Scrolls was picked off his body and deactivated. Neon had been able to call the ship at last, and Blake and Penny rushed out. They helped find Cinder, who was clinging to life under the pier, shivering cold but they’d gotten to her in time.

Way too close. Lost too much. But Flynt still felt like he’d cheated. Cheated in all ways except…

Flynt looked at the bandages covering his hands.

Blake walked onto the bridge and sat at the ship systems station across from Flynt. Her shoulders were tense, ears were laid down flat. She tightly gripped the armrests of her chair. With the captain incapacitated, the pressure of command fell to her. Blake was the only able-bodied member of the crew left--other than the android if you counted her, but she’d been too busy hauling Cinder inside.

The only other member of the crew on the bridge was Neon, piloting the ship. She’d barely said a word since she found Flynt in death’s grip, enough of her own issues to still process.

“Which one was it?” Blake’s tired voice, barely audible, slipped over the ship’s hum.

“Huh?” Flynt snapped out of his trance, looking at the Faunus beside him who intensely was side-eyeing him.

Blake took a deep breath as if preparing herself for the bad news. “Ruby once described the two that attacked her when she was taken by Black Lily. What did this one look like?”

Flynt nodded. He gave a brief physical description: The orange hair, the overly casual attitude, ability to phase through Aura, etc. He didn’t mention anything about his grin when he almost crushed Flynt’s neck, or the look of horror on his face when four bullets tore chunks out of his body.

Blake sighed. She let a disappointed expression slip but finally said, "That's one of them." The spite came across by how she clenched her teeth, and the satisfaction that a form of retribution had been carried out didn't need to be spoken.

Catching Flynt off guard, Blake sharply stood up. From her expression, pale face and lips pressed together, it looked like she was about to throw up.

“Good riddance,” she whispered before turning to leave.

Flynt understood why she looked sick. Black Lily would know someone was coming for them. With one of their Specialists dead, _Paradise’s_ crew could no longer hide under the radar. The crew’s situation had gone from potentially bad to inevitably worse.

Blake passed Ruby in the doorway, coming toward the bridge from down the hall. The Faunus stopped, delicately put a hand on Ruby’s shoulder, and leaned in for a kiss on the cheek.

Flynt looked away to give them their privacy. Intimacy and comfort were a healthy respite now that the threat was over. Even if the danger was dealt with before they knew it existed, everyone back at the ship had still been shaken by the situation.

Without any words, Blake walked down the hall, her presence on the bridge replaced by Ruby, who approached the other cat Faunus of the crew.

Neon had an ice pack wrapped around her ankle. It would probably be fine in a few days, hers were the least of the injuries, and thankfully they weren't ones that hindered her ability to fly or set a flight path.

Ruby sat in the co-pilot seat, reaching across and taking Neon’s hand. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Neon said. “We got him.”

Ruby nodded before leaning out of the chair and hugging her friend.

Neon patted her on the back, a solemn smile on her face. “One down.”

“One down,” Ruby repeated, almost choking out the words. Not celebrating, just saying it out loud to understand and cement the events. The sense of unreality was infectious.

Flynt stared at his hands. A soft blue glow surrounded them. Nothing too strong. He could get himself to focus it around his forearms, leaving the rest of his body exposed. Blake had bandaged him up--much better than he could for someone else--and showed him how to pool his Aura around specific body parts, however…

His hands weren’t completely destroyed. Most of the bones were shattered, and he was lucky he had Aura powers to stitch them back together after what he’d put them through. The dozens of himself had repeatedly punched an energy field as dense as bricks long enough to bore a hole through it. Medically, Flynt knew his hands, no matter his power, would never fully recover after this. There was no way the delicate nerves and bones could be healed to be as straight as they should be. He’d taken enough courses on Aura healing to know how rough it could be, especially untrained Aura like his.

Flynt would never have steady hands again. Any potential he had to return to a medical school or find work as an unlicensed medic or surgeon... returning to that career in any way... was gone.

With that crushing realization, Flynt just leaned back in his seat. He wasn’t upset, somehow. It was calming, in a morbid way. A weight off his shoulders had come with the confirmation that the person he’d always wanted to become was lost forever.

With the soft sound of boots on metal behind Flynt, Penny was next to grace the bridge. Her expression matched the somber attitude of the others as she quietly took Blake’s seat. “Captain Cinder is still unconscious,” she said, “but she needs the rest.”

Flynt got the impression that she was reporting information instead of making small talk. “How serious?”

“Her injuries will keep her down for a while,” Penny noted. “She’ll last until her Aura-healing comes back as long as she doesn’t overdo it and exhaust herself.” She shifted into a friendlier, slightly embarrassed expression. “That’s what Blake said, at least. I’m a combat robot, not a medic.”

“Not in the programming?” Flynt flatly joked.

Penny shrugged. “I can’t get injured, so…” She chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of her head. “I could weld the captain’s arm back together if she ever needed me to.”

Flynt laughed. Alright, now he was starting to see why Ruby and Neon kept this thing around. Even he needed a chuckle every now and then.

Penny leaned forward, putting her mechanical gloved hands together. “I thought I’d check up on you, too.”

“I’m fine,” Flynt said. “I’ll _be_ fine.” He wanted to wave her concern off, but he couldn’t really move his hands very well right now.

Penny tilted her head and raised an eyebrow skeptically. Obviously, she wasn’t buying any of his bullshit.

Flynt’s attempt to stop anyone--even an android--from worrying about him came off as more petulant than considerate. And rightfully so. He was being an idiot.

“Neon told Blake and me what happened,” Penny said. Her voice was oddly cold, like an interrogator prepping to pry information out of him, a prod for him to spill what was on his mind.

“It wasn’t enough,” Flynt felt himself say. The thought burning through his head, a repeated hammer blow that had started to torture him, was now free. Everything about Flynt, from his training, his determination, the fact that he could literally split himself into copies, hadn’t been enough. He was always sure he could at least be that much. Nothing great, but enough.

And now the truth had been revealed, crashing down around him as he'd tried to save a man, then avenge his death. And he’d failed at both.

Penny’s motionless gaze held on him. “You did more than anyone could have asked you.”

“And I still couldn't--” Flynt felt the words chock in his mouth. What could he have done if he was faster? What could he have done if he’d stayed back with Cinder instead of leaving her behind? What could he have said that would have sated a murderer taunting him in bad faith? He wanted there to be a solution. He wanted there to be something he could have done. Someway to blame his choices. If he was at fault, he could understand, but he couldn’t imagine anything he could have done differently at the time. If there were no errors, then in the face of a cruel universe, all his best efforts just hadn’t cut it.

“Well,” Flynt said, looking at his bandaged ruined hands again. “At least I can’t pretend to be useful anymore.”

Penny stood up, dusted off her short dress, and walked over to him. High enough to not interfere with the healing or bandages, she gently put a hand on his arm and looked down at his hands. Broken but healing. In the process of losing his future.

But her eyes weren’t sad. The android wasn’t pitying or dismissing him. “This isn’t the end, Flynt,” Penny said. “It is _an_ end, for sure. But it is also the beginning of something new.”

Without a word, or either of them noticing, Penny turned and looked toward Neon and Ruby. 

Flynt’s eyes followed. He wasn’t the only one here who had to remake themselves after losing everything. No matter what he lost or how much he’d be forced to change, he wasn’t alone. If he had to forge a path into a terrifying unknown future, he was at least in good company.

Penny pulled away and clasped her hands behind her back. “If everything’s stable up here,” she announced in a cuter voice for being overheard by Neon and Ruby, “I’m going to go stay by the captain’s side. Make sure she doesn’t hurt herself when she wakes up.”

“I see the game you're playing.” Neon forced a joke.

“Merely helping my captain,” Penny responded with a wink.

Neon’s smile was more genuine. “Go get ‘er, Penny.”

Even Ruby couldn’t help but slip an amused groan at this.

Penny gave them a knowing thumbs up and rushed back down the hall to where they’d laid down Cinder.

_I’ll ask later,_ Flynt though, electing to ignore Neon’s shenanigans as he glanced after the happy little android as she skipped off.

Funny. The thing actually made him want to hope. Costs and tragedies aside, he was still alive, and there was more that he could do.

“Ruby,” Flynt said, swiveling his chair toward the co-pilot seat, “before he died, Dr. Glauco told me what Black Lily was planning.”

Ruby turned, silver eyes instantly serious. “Tell me.”

Flynt nodded, feeling guilty he was the one who had to break the news. “The governor of Machina is setting up an infrastructure to mass-produce more Penny androids.”

“Mass--” Ruby’s eyes went wide. 

“Yeah…” Neon said solemnly. “It’s way worse than we thought.”

“They can’t make artificial Auras--they'll have to harvest Aura-users,” Ruby said, the realization and scope of it setting in. “Oh god, they’re going to make assembly lines out of what they did to us.” Her fists clenched tightly in rage.

Neon turned to the dashboard and started updating the controls. “I’m setting the route. It’s a long one, so we can throw off anyone who could be looking for us. _Orca_ -classes are common, so hopefully, we’ll slip through any scrutiny. But we should still do something on the way that makes us less suspicious.”

Flynt shrugged. “We’ve got enough paint downstairs in the cargo bay to change our appearance. A little, at least.”

Neon and Ruby nodded. A plan was forming, and one way or another they’d get themselves to Machina.

“Thank you, Flynt,” Ruby said. A determined approving look was in her eye. After all this time looking, they finally had a lead. They had a glimpse at what the enemy was planning. With that, they could finally find a way to stop them once and for all.

Flynt held out his hands. It would be a couple days before they were usable, and he could get back to helping around the new severely understaffed ship, but…

“Hey, Ruby?”

Ruby turned back again, surprised by the conversational tone in Flynt’s voice. “What’s up?”

“You’ve built weapons, right? For Hunters… Freelancers, I guess, and stuff like that.”

The former warrior nodded. “More than I can count.”

Flynt stared her in the eyes, trying to show his resolve. “Could you make me something? I want to fight.”

For the first time, Ruby and Flynt shared determination at long last. With a nod, Ruby agreed.

Neon looked between them, recognizing what Flynt had committed too. Where once there would have been a satisfied smirk or a list of prepared teases for this moment, there was only a bitter taste to it.

He smiled, letting her know that it was alright.

Neon was the first to turn away, a look of guilt on her face. She focused on the task at hand, adjusting their course and the radar sensors.

Flynt settled back in his chair, closed his eyes, and sent a thought out into the void. A forever unheard apology to his brother and family.

_Sorry everyone, but I’ve got something I have to help with. I hope you understand._

* * *

Every breath hurt. Cinder couldn’t move her chest. It was like a weight was pushing down on her, trapping her down in place in the void. She was unfortunately conscious enough to feel pain. A good start. It meant she wasn’t dead yet--hopefully. Broken ribs were the least of her problems if she was in hell, so she probably wasn’t there yet.

A soft glow slipped past her eyelids. She could feel warm, somewhat stale, air on her face. The brain was still foggy. Good thing too because, God, this hurt. She should go back to sleep. Even then, it still hurt, but Cinder wouldn't be as aware of it.

_“--alright?”_

There were words. Her brain could process that much. Damn, she really was waking up. The voice pooled around Cinder, gently like pillows around her jagged senses.

“How are you feeling?” 

The voice was clearing up now. A girl’s voice. Almost familiar. Admiring. Concerned. 

That wasn’t right. The voice in Cinder’s mind hadn’t been kind for so long. What was happening?

“Emerald?” Cinder mumbled. Saying it out loud made her eye shoot open in shock. _“Em!”_

Cinder tried to sit up but immediately fell backward, breathing harshly. Each gasp was a new type of pain in her chest. What was the last thing that had happened? Right. Cold. Clinging to a pillar under the pier. But now she was in--

She stared around, one eye blinking the sleep away to see what was happening. She was inside… metal walls. How the hell did she get back to the ship? It had been so long since she had been in one of the crew quarters she forgot what they looked like, but this was the guest room. The one they used to give to passengers. Oh, right. They’d given it to the robot, hadn’t they?

Sure enough, Penny was there, sitting in a chair next to the bed. Bright green artificial eyes above a sickeningly friendly smile.

“What happened?” Cinder’s weak voice croaked out. God, talking hurt. Fuck!

“Blake and I fished you out of the water and carried you back to the ship,” Penny said, cheerful but also quiet. Why is it quiet? It was Cinder’s ribs that hurt, not her hearing. “We couldn’t get you up the stairs to your room, and you keep the door locked anyway, so we put you down here in my room.” Penny closed her eyes and tilted her head with a smile.

Cinder looked around as well as she could lying down on the bed. The room was clean, like the android never used it. It probably hadn't. It didn’t need privacy, and so far, it had only treated the room as a spot to stay out of sight. Cinder finally rested her glare on the robot, just sitting there, a smile on her face, not a care in the world. “Don’t you have better things to do?”

“I thought I’d check up on you,” Penny said, “and make sure you don’t try anything silly. At least until your Aura recovers and you can start healing yourself.”

Cinder rolled her eye and tried to sit up again, only for Penny to gently push her forehead back down with a finger.

“Don’t make me restrain you, Captain.” Penny waggled a finger on her other hand. “You need your rest.”

Cinder frowned and leaned back into the pillow. “Fine…” Could someone even argue with a machine? She wouldn't test it. Besides, she could use an excuse to keep still.

As soon as she thought that was acceptable, she remembered the rest of the day and finally asked the difficult question:

“Are-- Did Flynt and Neon--?”

“They’re fine,” Penny reported.

Cinder let out a loud sigh of relief. Which hurt. Ow. Served her right for caring, damn it.

“The doctor, Glauco, didn’t make it. However, Flynt and Neon managed to defeat the Specialist.”

“But they’re okay?”

“Flynt’s hurt, but…” Penny trailed off as she recognized Cinder’s concern. “Nowhere near as bad as you, Captain.”

“They’re alive,” Cinder mumbled to herself. She repeated it a few times. Letting her sentimental concerns overtake and reveal themselves. Hopefully, the robot wouldn’t tell anyone. It was just a machine. It wasn’t like it could judge her weakness.

“I brought you some food. Soup, for the patient.” Penny held up a tray and soon had scooped some luke-warm liquid into a spoon and held it out for Cinder.

Cinder groaned, “I’ll feed myself later,” then closed her eye.

No response. After a stubbornly long time, Cinder opened her eye. Penny hadn’t moved an inch. The same smile was plastered-still on her face, spoon held in front of Cinder with mechanical stillness and precision, not a wobble or ripple in the liquid held by the utensil.

“You’re going to force this no matter what I say, aren't you?” Cinder asked.

Penny nodded. “You are too injured to give orders, Captain. And you don’t have a clear chain of command on your ship, so I’m afraid no one can give an order that would stop me from nursing you back to health.”

Cinder smirked. Yep, it was proven. There is no negotiating with machines.

She was annoyed by her own helplessness, but it was far from the first time she’d been reduced to an invalid. And machines didn’t judge--hopefully.

Giving in, Cinder opened her mouth and let the thing feed her.

* * *

June’s breath caught in her throat as she reached the intersection. The day had been like a taste of a warzone. There had been gunshots deeper in the settlement, and June had returned to find the back of the clinic reduced to rubble. Only after searching through it, sure there hadn't been any victims, had the news finally reached her.

Police tape blocked her path. The Atlesian troops stationed in town never had to bring it out. June was almost surprised they even had any. At the scene, there were two guards, a car from the other clinic in town, that had brought the other doctor, Dr. Marianne.

With the troops distracted asking their questions to a citizen who had been around during the first few gunshots, June lifted the tape. She walked through toward Dr. Marianne, who sat halfway out of her car's driver-side seat. The older woman looked up and removed a pen from between her teeth as her mouth flattened. "June."

“Is it--” June’s voice cracked. She composed herself and put on her professional face, the one she put on to give patients and their loved one’s bad news. Perhaps it would work in reverse, as she tried not to look at either of the sheet-covered bodies lying just down the road. “It is really him?”

The doctor reached out and gently pressed her hand into June’s. “I’m sorry, child.”

June stifled a gasp, swallowed it down, and kept her back straight. She was a professional. Despite what someone from a dominant settlement would think, June took her work very seriously. Even here, she’d watched people die. She’d been there when Dr. Nero had lost patients. She could be strong, just like he’d taught her to be.

Without another word, she squeezed the comforting hand in thanks, turned, and marched over to the bodies.

Blood surrounded the scene where the road had been torn up. Chunks of earth were shattered, thrown around, and smashed to rubble. There had been an Aura fight. Even June could recognize the obvious signs from the stories of Hunters and Freelancers battling each other. Spent shell casings left on the ground were marked and being photographed by one of the troopers, gathering more evidence now that the conditions of the bodies had been recorded.

On the edge of June’s view, the other Atlesian trooper looked like he was about to rush over and yell at her. “Ma’am, you can’t be--!”

“It’s alright, kid!” Dr. Marianne called over, shaking her head. “She’s the only family the old-man had. Let her be.”

The soldier, younger than even June, looked between them and finally realized who this huge Faunus woman was. It was a small town, after all. Even if they hadn’t met, he’d know who she was.

June almost reached the pair of sheets when she recognized the sleeve and hand of one of the bodies. She’d washed her’s alongside those hands every day for the past two years.

“Miss?” The Atlesian trooper had walked over to her as she stared frozen in place at every individual finger. Maybe she could find an inconsistency with her memory, but his presence snapped her out of the delusional hope. The trooper’s helmet-covered head was bowed as respectfully as he could manage, but he was overdoing it. Maybe she only thought so because she'd dealt with the dead’s loved ones more often, but she couldn't be mad at an attempt. June spared him a look as he continued. “I wouldn’t… His face…”

June understood what he meant. From where the blood was pooling and what had soaked into the sheet, what was left of Dr. Nero’s face wouldn’t be something even she would recognize.

Thanking the trooper for the warning, June knelt next to the corpse. Nero had given her guidance and direction in life. He’d been like a father to her. Why hadn’t she ever seen him that way before now?

Without disturbing the sheet, June held his cold hand, gripping those familiar fingers as tightly as she dared. They were smaller, more fragile than she’d remembered.

“Dr. Nero,” June cried. Tears dripped down the scales on her cheeks. It was just them now, so it was okay to cry. It was okay to have this pain take over and bring her crashing down in despair--at least for a little while. Until she’d have to do what he’d taught her and pick herself back up. Even after everything he’d done for her, the only way she could repay him was with grief.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For transparency! Beryl had a name change between chapters, and I went back and replaced the few mentions of him in two previous chapters. Sorry about any confusion this could cause. Hope you enjoy the chapter.

“Send me out there, sir!” Beryl screamed, eyes watering as his fists clenched at his sides. “I’ll kill them! I’ll kill every last one of those bastards!”

Ciel’s expression didn’t waver as she stared up at the much larger Specialist. His Atlesian uniform top was wrapped around his waist, and tears stained his black tank top--a muscular soldier quivering in pain and rage.

When the alarm that reported violence inside the ship was set off, it was Ciel's responsibility to respond as a senior officer. Beryl had taken out his grief and anger on the mess hall. There were a couple of shattered tables, a plate of food scattered on the floor, and Aura scorch burns on the tile. Ciel hoped the maintenance androids could handle all of it.

“Attention, soldier,” Ciel said. Her voice stayed cool and barely audible over the man’s sobs.

Beryl jerks up straight at the sound of her order. He quickly whipped the water welling in his eyes and stared straight ahead. “Yes, sir…”

Ciel took a long calming breath, ignoring the disaster around her and focusing on her subordinate. The confirmation had come in last night. Beryl’s partner, both in duty and romantically, had been killed in the line of duty. Both Key and his target, a defector named Dr. Glauco, had been found shot to death in the settlement the doctor was hiding in. The early results of the local security force investigation were unsure if Key or his murderer had been the one to execute Glauco. Both had been murdered by the same model of Atlesian pistol the Black Lily outfitted its officers with, which eerily felt like a message. Either way, Key’s attackers must have had Aura abilities of their own if they could have possibly combated the Semblance Key'd been equipped with. 

Against an unknown threat of this level, Ciel and the remaining members of her small squad of Specialists were on high-alert. They couldn’t afford any chaos in the ranks right now, even something as petty as tearing up the mess hall needed to be immediately stomped out. That being said, Ciel didn’t have time for this. Literally. She had a meeting in… she wasn’t sure. She’d have to check the watch on her wrist to know for sure.

“Throwing a tantrum will not solve anything, Operative Beryl,” Ciel reprimanded with a calm but firm voice.

“I want to be the one to stop them, Commander,” Beryl said. His voice shook as he sucked back the tears. “They’re a threat to the doc’s future! Key believed in it too. He deserves to be avenged!”

“None of us could afford you going off to rampage alone across Solitas until you randomly find whoever did this. We need information on our enemy. If our operation has been targeted, we need a permanently stationed Specialist here on the ship at all times as a last line of defense. Those are your orders, Operative Beryl.”

Beryl glanced down at the severely shorter woman. “But, sir…”

“Do you understand your orders, Operative Beryl?”

The Specialist lowered his head in shame. “Yes, sir.” His clenched fists were finally loosened in defeat.

Ciel nodded at his compliance and understanding. “Our master needs you here to protect his work.”

“Yes, sir.”

She spared another glance around the room, trying to hide how she was shifting uncomfortably. She wasn’t the best at handling the emotional aspects of command, but she still had to try. “Speak with the counseling program; do whatever you need to grieve, but we need you ready. We’ll be on high-alert for the next few days.”

Tears welled in Beryl’s eyes again. “I’ll be ready, sir! I’ll defend all of us… For Key.” He let out a loud sniffle before clearing his throat and stared forward. “I’ll be ready!”

Ciel turned to leave. “At ease.”

As Ciel left the mess hall, Beryl almost collapsed into a still standing bench, one of the few undamaged by his earlier rampage, and quietly sobbed into his arms.

The door closed. With a barrier between Ciel and the distraught soldier, she took a deep breath and checked her watch. Thankfully, there was still time to be early for her meeting with Dr. Watts. Losing track of time was a bad habit of Ciel’s for as long as she could remember, hence the watch. Without it, she’d periodically panic that she was late for any and all responsibilities, so she looked at it as often as possible. She knew other people had mental clocks, with a variety of accuracies, none of which Ciel could relate to.

The large wide-open halls of the carrier-class ship Ciel was stationed in were ordained with plants. Splashes of green foliage, shrubs, flowers in gardens raised on either end of the walkways and in between the doors. Feint mist from the automatic watering system carried the scent of a forest, completing the illusion. The ship was an oasis, in harsh contrast with the blizzard outside the wide insulated windows.

The _Black Lily_ was from a would-have-been line of new Atlesian carriers that never made it past the prototype phase. Its upsides were resisting the most extreme of Solitas weather and better stabilization than any airship in existence. The downsides were deal breakers for the military. It wasn’t good at attacking or defending. Too delicate and slow for war or shows of force. None of that mattered for Ciel’s organization, however. Instead of being scrapped, Watts’s political connections had acquired it for him to use as the perfect secret laboratory. Large enough for limited manufacturing and multiple research departments, the ship was shaped like a long triangle balanced high in the air using outstretched Gravity-Dust wings. Those stabilizers were advanced enough that walking through the ship felt indistinguishable from the solid ground--even inside the blizzards of northern Solitas and the Frozen Sea they perpetually hid their operation.

Even in a squad of special cases, Beryl and Key had been unique. Like the rest, they’d been recruited a while before Ciel was brought in to lead the Specialist team. Key was a wildcard, but Beryl kept him in check, so both defaulted to her authority. Dr. Watts had recovered both from an Atlesian military prison. Beryl had been framed by a rival officer gunning for a leadership position in their platoon. It was distressingly common behavior among Atlesians. In response to the trial, Key had gone on a rampage, perhaps purposely getting himself locked away with his long-time partner. An evaluation showed Beryl fit the psychological profile as a potential sympathizer to Watts’s goals. During their initial meetings, Beryl had bartered Key’s release as well. In return, both would serve Watts, doubling the number of Specialists on the Black Lily at the time.

Those two had been inseparable. Apparently, the PDA issues went back even before their Atlesian Military days. They were an out of place, but not unwelcome, dash of humanity on the ship. Ciel knew it felt cruel to think, even for her, but if this couldn’t have been avoided, and one of them had to have died, it was for the best the Key was the one they’d lost. The reverse situation would have been far worse. Beryl was stronger and worth more to the project. He was also a soldier; Ciel knew how to deal with him, but Key's grief would have been so destructive he would have to be contained indefinitely. Even so, discovering they had some new powerful enemies wasn’t worth losing any of their agents.

_It’s no use getting hung up imagining alternate scenarios,_ Ciel thought. What could have been, better or worse, was irrelevant. This was their reality now, so she’d handle it. Ciel made a mental note to keep an eye on Beryl. It was a frustrating addition to her mental itinerary--she was already spread thin _before_ the high-alert.

Turning the corner to the end of the hall and Watts’s lab, Ciel spotted her other Specialist casually leaning next to the wall by a control panel. He was out of uniform, as usual, dressed instead in a half buttoned-up white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, showing wrists and upper arms adorned with rows of gold and silver bracelets that shone against his pale skin.

“Hey, boss,” he said before looking up from playing with his chain necklace. He turned, his dress shoes squeaking against the floor as one hand’s thumb hung lazily in his silk pants, and the other dropped his jewelry back around his neck and slicked back his purple hair tied back in a tail.

Ciel stifled an urge to frown at the man’s expected peacocking but kept her face as unaffected as always. After all these years, she'd had plenty of practice not showing her how annoyed she was by his presence.

“You’re back, Operative Kane.”

Lavender Kane’s thin eyebrows on his wide forehead furrowed, despite the almost convincing smirk. “I’d already finished with the last of those pirates when you gave the order to run home back to base.” He spoke in a deliberate Atlesian accent like it was his second language and had to carefully think through each sentence before it left his mouth. He was from Mantle and tried way too hard to hide that. “They had a few Semblance-users of their own, you know. It got a little sketchy out there in the boonies with no backup.”

“It’s resolved, then?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Kane was back to twisting and pulling out his chain necklace in a violent gesture, mocking a noose. “All leaks contained on my front.”

_Good. One less problem dealt with,_ Ciel thought, _but not even Kane would waste his time waiting for me when a report would tell me all this._

“So, little Key got himself offed, huh?” Kane looked down the hall and frowned. “That’s a pity. He was the only one left around here I got along with.”

_He hated you, Kane. Half of my job for the first three months I was here was making sure the two of you didn’t tear each other’s throats out._ They were similar but different in all the wrong ways. No respect for authority, but Kane couldn’t understand caring for anyone more than himself.

“What do you want, Kane?”

It had been a demand, but Kane just chuckled. “Direct, even for you, boss. That’s why I respect you.”

_Just call me a bitch and get it over with. I don’t have time for this._

With no response given for him to play with, Kane leaned in closer to meet her eyes. “I want Key’s investigation.”

Ciel frowned and turned to meet his stare. “Why?”

Kane shrugged his shoulders innocently. “You’re busy wrapping up the rest of the Goldsong mess, aren’t you? “Let me take something off your plate. I’m wasted as a guard dog. Besides, you’ll need someone out there already deployed if these people make another move.”

Ciel narrowed her glare. “You’d only ask specifically for an assignment if it intrigued you. What do you know that I don’t?”

Kane smiled, the first real one of the day, flashing sharp, dangerous canines. If it weren’t for Ciel’s access to his background and medical records, she’d have suspected he was a Faunus. “I like my secrets, but you’re cute right now, so I’ll spill a few of the beans.” He turned and took a few steps toward the nearest window, snapping his fingers as he looked out over the frozen environment. "I don't have any proof yet, so don't get your hopes up. My theory, however--" Key raised a finger and tapped the side of his head "--is that the mysterious crew who kidnapped Goldsong's pet Specialist along with our prototype are the same group that killed Key."

Ciel put a gloved hand against her chin. It wasn’t impossible. A bit of a stretch, though, but Kane’s intuition had proved valuable in the past. “Do you have a lead?”

Swiveling back revealed Kane's eyes--betraying his contained excitement. “Let me track them down and kill them first, boss. A detective has to wait until the end to reveal his process. I’ll tell you everything over dinner when I get back.” He let out a big laugh and didn’t seem to notice or care that she wasn’t amused. “But seriously, boss. The Goldsong mess is one you’ll be busy cleaning up properly to investigate this any time soon. We're down a man, and it doesn't sound like Beryl is going to be helping anyone anytime soon." He did the motion of a prayer, mocking his comrade’s pain. “Give me the case, and when you’ve finished digging through all of Goldsong’s trash, I’ll have Key’s killer and the prototype at your feet the morning after. Fewer problems for you, and I can get you a nice present. Everyone wins!”

Ciel mulled it over. If he was right, It would be incredibly convenient if both of their mysterious enemies were the same. Why and how they’d turned toward hunting down their Operatives so quickly as a concern. However, out of all their Operatives, Kane’s instincts were the ones to trust with seek-and-destroy missions.

“I authorize it,” Ciel decided, turning away from her Operative. They were done.

Kane did a salute, along with an unnecessary wink before spinning around, and immediately started walking down the hall with a wave. “I’m taking one of the faster shuttles to catch up with them. Tell Watts I said ‘hi!’” he called before he was finally gone.

The infuriating part of Kane was that he always got the job done and never fully crossed any lines, so Ciel still didn’t have a reason to toss him over the side of the ship. He knew it too. He got way too much pleasure dancing up to what was unacceptable and scurrying away before he got in any trouble. The constant sexual harassment was also draining. However, he was somehow not the worst associate she’d had to deal with. Thank the gods that job was long past her.

Ciel checked her watch. She’d wanted to be early, but punctual would have to do. After a fresh breath, resetting herself, she scanned her card on the sensor panel at the lab door and held still for a quick facial recognition scan before the lab finally unlocked for her.

As she entered the laboratory, Ciel felt the air turn a touch more humid than the controlled atmosphere in the rest of the ship. The wide-open hall was a greenhouse full of life, enough to make the passages outside look sparse by comparison. Ciel entered the illusion of a forest full of diverse shrubs, trees, and flowers; all kinds of flora recovered from each remaining continent. The room was illuminated by a network of UV lights hanging down from the high ceiling. It was cast through the foliage, filling the room with a soft green glow. In bizarre juxtaposition, the lush imagery surrounded laboratory equipment in the center of the chamber. A scattering of metallic android limbs and body parts twitched on tables. They were all attached through wires and tubes to an array of machinery and monitors running at least four different diagnostics and simulations simultaneously.

Dr. Watts was standing by the frost-covered fern in a far corner of the lab. The UV’s directly above had been dimmed to be even darker than the blizzard outside. Some paper walls shielding the plant from the rest of the lab, and a thin layer of powdered Ice-Dust around the stem chilled the small area.

Before Ciel could announce her presence--just in case the doctor had been too busy to hear her enter behind him--she was interrupted by a loud cartoonish "bonk" erupting from a nearby hologram. The projection was playing, rather loudly, old black and white footage. From the exaggerated voices and slapstick violence, it was apparently some kind of comedy sketch.

“My personal favorite,” Watts spoke up.

He stood up, tall and thin, and stepped away from the plant. With one hand, he brushed his bushy mustache, and with the other a few stray crumbs of fertilizer off his grey overcoat he wore over a yellow shirt and black tie. He had short black hair, tan skin, and a cold analyzing gaze under thick eyebrows. Crossing his arms behind his back, he returned to the main area of his lab. He passed the strawberry plants into a small kitchen area and flipped on the kettle to heat up water.

“My father was the archivist of a museum which preserved pre-collapse entertainment,” Watts said as he washed his hands. “We had everything from music, plays, books--” he gestured to the screen “--comedy television skits. It’s taken me years to find a copy.”

After a pause and a whistle, the water was boiling, and he poured himself a cup. He motioned it toward Ciel, wordlessly asking if she wanted a cup. As always, Ciel politely shook her head as he shrugged. Maybe next time.

Watts sipped his still hot tea as he made his way back to his desk, double-checking one of the screens before sitting in a rolling chair and crossing his legs. With a nearby remote, he turned down the volume of the ancient program. The last part of his routine was picking up a spray bottle and watering a pitcher of dark purple flowers. Black lilies--an apparent favorite of his since he'd named his ship after them.

Ciel stood at attention, holding still despite the casual routine behavior of her master. “I thought I would begin bringing you daily reports since we are on high-alert now, sir."

Watts waved her off. “You don’t have to report every detail back to me, commander. I brought you on to handle situations like this. I trust and refer to your judgment in this matter, as always.”

“Of course, sir.”

It was hard to tell if Watts smiled or frowned at her through the mustache, but he eventually compromised. “What’s the gist of the situation this morning? Any changes from last night’s fiasco?”

“Operative Beryl is taking Key’s death poorly.”

“As expected. Poor man.” Watts was quiet for a moment. “I should put some time aside later to visit him.”

“I’ve ordered him to stay on base indefinitely. To protect you and the project.”

Watts nodded. “For the best. I don’t care for vendettas. Too messy. We need to be more utilitarian if we are going to save humanity. Anything else? The gist, please.”

Ciel frowned. “Kane seems to be up to something. He claims Key’s killers will lead to him recovering the stolen PENNY-model.”

“That would be nice. Kane was the first specialist I recruited, and he hasn’t failed me yet, so if he says he can, I trust him.” Watts paused again, taking time to think and sip at his morning tea. “This is the second time we’ve lost an operative.”

“Yes, sir,” Ciel responded with a respectful nod. She’d been brought on to lead the group after Operative Black was killed in action almost five years ago during the _Mistral Express_ -incident. From the reports, it was the finale of cleaning up one of the worst leaks in the project’s history. A side experiment loaned out to a sister-lab was stolen by a defector who’d almost given the unstable technology to Mistral’s new government. Despite the operative’s death at the hands of a Hunter protecting the train, none of the research had survived. Watts had left the train’s occupants alone after concluding they didn’t know enough to harm the project. Realizing his operation needed more oversight if he were ever to accomplish his work, Watts recruited Ciel shortly after the disaster.

Years of tightening security, commanding the three remaining operatives, and she eventually became more than their handler, a fellow Semblance-user alongside them. Under her leadership, the project had stayed the course. But now, between Goldsong’s betrayal and Key’s death, everything was threatening to fall apart all over again.

“We need more time, commander,” Watts said, gravely. “Our preparations can’t be rushed. I have a feeling it’s only going to get worse from here.”

“Are you worried Goldsong wasn’t the only one planning to betray us?” Ciel asked. “It’s possible Garnet has his own schemes.”

"I trust Garnet's greed--for now--but I also didn't expect Goldsong to brazenly and incompetently betray us. My judgment toward our unsuspecting conspirators may be flawed."

Ciel understood. Working with Garnet was a necessary evil, one of many, but one she understood Watts’s distaste for. There was no going back now, however. Nothing they’d done would have any purpose if they stopped. For their means to justify an end, they had to bring that ‘end’ into existence first. Until then, the severity of their sins hovered in a dangerous limbo.

“Sometimes, I’m jealous of my collection.” Watts looked around the surrounding greenery. “Did you spot that fern I was working with when you came in? It has a particular evolutionary curiosity.”

Ciel glanced back over to the corner. “I would say it came from Anima if you hadn’t planted Ice-Dust around it, sir. Is it from the tundra?”

“Northern coast, actually--amazingly!” Watts smiled as a gleam of fascination filled his dark eyes. “ _Photopodiopsida_. These ferns grow through the ice and practically cover the coast, despite the freezing temperatures. It survives because they have a high reproduction rate, but if the spores were introduced in any other ecosystem, they'd rapidly become an invasive species--starving out all other life until everything, including themselves, were destroyed. The only thing preventing this fate is a fascinating limiter they evolved with. High amounts of UV light and any temperature above freezing kills the spores, so it can only thrive specifically on Solitas’s northern coast.”

“I see…”

“Humans lack any self-regulations, but partially because of that, you and I are a member of the only species in the known universe capable of appreciating this fern. The plant isn’t capable of understanding its own existence. The elk only sees it as food and nothing more. From the smallest spore to the entire cosmos, only we can witness and understand the universe’s mechanics. _That_ is our evolutionary curiosity. And it must be preserved at all cost.”

The pensive silence that followed was interrupted by a particularly loud slapstick section of the ancient comedy, still playing on the hologram. Watts seemed grateful to it that it snapped him out of his thoughts.

“We’ll need to advance carefully. I’m afraid I’ll have to depend on you more than ever, Commander Soleil.”

“Anything, sir.”

Watts chuckled. “You never complain, do you?”

“You gave me everything, sir!” Ciel held back a salute, even if she would have meant it with all her heart. “This position, my power, hope for the future… I’ll do anything you need, sir.”

Watts nodded and collapsed his hands together. “We will have to make sure our other unwitting ally doesn’t have his own betrayal planned. Once the Goldsong business is resolved, visit Machina’s governor. You know how he thinks better than I do. We need to see where we currently stand with him, and also uncover any hidden motives we don't know about yet."

“Yes, sir.” Ciel bowed.

Watts turned and picked up some goggles and a small welding tool. “I’ll leave it to you then, commander. As always, handle it as you feel is appropriate.”

Ciel left him to his work, back to finishing up the final tweaks of his masterpiece. Its android body lay strewn around, but pieced together, it would be the first of a line of androids that would make Watts’s dream possible. A small piece of the plan which would ultimately lead to humanity’s salvation.


	15. Chapter 15

Ruby appeared in an explosion of rose petals. Her shoulder-length hair settled around her shoulders, and a red tailcoat flapped from the sudden stop behind her back. _Crescent Rose_ in her hands, Ruby spun it around herself before pointing the blade of her scythe down at her two opponents.

Across the ruined mall lobby, the two bandits turned, alerted from the sound of her arrival on the ivy-covered balcony above, as crimson flower confetti drifted toward them.

“Looks like I didn’t lose your trail after all!” Ruby called down. A smug grin flashed across her face. A serving of justice had arrived at a table for two.

Ruby had tracked them down to the ruins of a pre-calamity shopping mall. The decayed walls and tiled flooring were covered in overgrowth. Several enormous trees were growing through the skylight and their roots were spread around like a web, blocking off access to the various abandoned shops and stores. The bandit’s had believed they had found a good hiding place, but they’d only boxed themselves in for her.

It was strange for two bandits to work alone--even stranger for them to be looking at a data drive on a Scroll. The Screen the smaller one was holding was too far away for Ruby to see properly, but whatever was on it was interesting to both of her targets.

The tall one, built like a body-builder with green hair and sideburns, kept an eye on her while he spoke to his smaller, average-sized partner. “Did we get it?”

“Yep,” the one with spiky orange hair responded. “No trace of any copies.” He pulled the data drive out of his Scroll and crushed it in his hand before dropping it to the ancient stone tile. As he took a few steps toward Ruby, he crushed the drive under his foot. “Sorry, but we don’t have time to play with a Freelancer. Do you mind just letting us go?”

Ruby raised her chin. Something was off about their accents. It didn't sound genuine Northern Sanus like the settlers who’d called her in. But even stranger than that--

“You attacked a settlement and killed three people,” Ruby called down, “all to destroy a thumb drive?”

Orange-Hair shrugged and called back, “A far-off family member got a little share-happy.” 

The bigger one nudged him on the shoulder to shut him up. “Key!”

Orange-hair “Key” rolled his eyes. “We’re killing her anyway, Beryl,” he said, pulling out a pistol and knife. “What’s the difference?”

Beryl nodded and removed a Hunter-class ax from his back. He and his partner braced themselves in matching stances, and together their Aura’s activated. Beryl a green flame, and Key a featureless white.

_Two Aura-users, huh?_ Ruby thought, keeping a confident and unwaveringly professional smirk. _I shouldn’t have run ahead of Blake this time. Oh well. Time to see if the big one knows how to use that beauty!_

With a quick sharp intake of air, Ruby activated her Aura’s Switch--Powering up her Semblance and creating a new flurry of rose petals.

Ruby charged. The building Aura-power launched her body down into the natural cage. The petals scattered behind her in a trial that flowed off her like a liquid. Too fast for the average human to keep up with, Ruby zipped and zoomed around the lobby in a series of seemingly random directions before charging toward the two from the side, her scythe drawn back to cut them down.

Very impressively, the big one turned on the dot and blocked her strike with the side of his weapon. The only effect her blow caused was skitting him back--feet sliding across the floor until the friction finally stopped her accelerated momentum.

“Oh? Not bad!” Ruby’s smile wavered a little when she saw through Beryl’s gritted teeth, he wasn’t intimidated by her Semblance at all.

Both broke apart and near-instantly swung their weapons back at each other--A repeating clash between ax and scythe. Sparks from Aura and metal cracking against each other flew, like a series of small explosions had erupted in the center of the lobby.

Mid-swing, Beryl dodged out of the way of Ruby’s latest attack. He'd avoided it altogether and left Ruby wide open for Key to start firing Dust rounds from his pistol at her.

No problem. Effortlessly, Ruby sped out of the way. Bullets hadn’t been an issue for years.

“You call _that_ a gun?” Ruby called out, her laugh ringing as it followed her words, leaving a trail for the two bandits to follow as they turned their heads up to the ceiling where she’d appeared after an instant.

Ruby landed on one of the few secure beams, covered in blooming flowers, soon coated by her own petals. _Crescent Rose_ in her hands transformed--slick metal sliding and shifting into its sniper-rifle form. She pointed it nearly straight down, pulled back the bolt, and loaded a new round into the chamber.

“ _This_ is a gun!”

A muzzle flash. A boom that felt slightly delayed to Ruby’s enhanced senses but drowned out by the streak of light hitting the floor below and a larger red explosion from the Fire-Dust shot sending cracks in every direction, shattering the few remaining ancient glass window panes in sight.

The two bandits only just managed to leap out of the way to avoid damage but had been separated and temporarily blinded by the smoke.

With another boost of acceleration, Ruby fell down, lightly falling between them, and got to work.

Ruby zoomed back and forth between the two, lightning-fast attacks one after another. They were meters apart, but she attacked both faster than a blink of an eye. With a smack of her scythe’s pole against his legs, Beryl was knocked prone, the smaller Key already being rushed down by the time he hit the ground.

_One at a time,_ Ruby thought as she didn’t waste time focusing on Key. He was managing to block her repeating slashes from her larger weapon between his knife and pistol. Obviously, he'd had experience against Hunter-class opponents, but that didn’t magically make him capable of handling her speed. His reaction time wasn't fast enough to stop her from breaking through his guard and slice and large gash through his Aura.

Key grunted from the impact. The injury wasn’t physical, of course. Just a large percentage of his Aura reserve had been carved away by her blade.

But instead of staggering back from the blow, Key’s eyes shot wide open as he reached out and briefly brushed his arm against Ruby’s. _“Resonant Phase!”_

His Aura started brimming, buzzing like angry static as it turned a deep red like it’d been dropped into a vat of dye.

Ruby broke free from their brief contact and went for another chop with her weapon--this time aimed at his shoulder.

Key reacted by casually lifting an arm to block the same attack that had wounded him, this time only barely scratching his Aura energy.

She was lucky to realize what was happening right before he counter-attacked with his knife toward her gut. Another build-up of power and Ruby dashed a couple yards away from him before he could land the deadly blow.

_Whatever that Semblance technique is, it’s making him ignore my Aura,_ Ruby thought. She was sure that blade of his would have been able to ignore her defenses the same way he’d ignored her offensive power strengthening _Crescent Rose._ She took a few more swings at him, boosting herself around and trying to attack from more unpredictable angles. Ruby was faster, easily overwhelming him, but her no longer enhanced weapon could only take chips out of his Aura-shielding now.

Dodging another slice from his knife, Ruby slid to the side full speed, guiding him to attack her afterimage--A little trick she picked up from her girlfriend.

Key was in position now. _Crescent Rose_ had already shifted into its rifle-form, a second explosive Dust-round aimed right at his face from only a few yards away.

“Gotcha!”

Ruby’s finger pulled the trigger. The barrel flashed--a projectile that couldn’t care less about Aura mimicking other aura-frequencies launched faster than Ruby could blink.

_No way!_ Ruby’s jaw dropped.

The bullet hadn’t made it to the target because the larger bandit had appeared and _caught_ the bullet midway between _Crescent Rose_ and Key.

Beryl stood between them, arm reached out, fist clenched around the bullet which had contained the explosion inside his hand, and impossibly done no damage to him or his Aura. His Aura glowed with a reflective sheen, like transparent armor, forming as he spoke aloud his own Semblance: “ _Frozen Stasis--Four-minute mode!_ ”

A clock appeared in the Aura covering Beryl's chest. It had an appearance similar to an analog timer, the clock's hand rotating down, assumingly at a speed that would make a full rotation in four minutes.

_A contract-based Semblance?_ Ruby thought. _Those were nearly as rare as paradox-types. How are two bandits packing stuff this powerful?_

Beryl turned his glare on her. Attacking Key had apparently crossed a line, and he wasn’t going to go easy on the Freelancer anymore. He batted Ruby and her weapon to the side with his ax, moving aggressively, uncaring if she countered or not. When she tried, after transforming _Crescent Rose_ back into a scythe, her Aura-enhanced weapon just bounced off his Aura. It refused to take any damage, not even a scratch, as it brimmed with power, and the timer kept ticking.

_The contract is probably Aura-invincibility until the time limit runs out._ In the past, Ruby had run into Aura that shattered after an overpowered ability was used, but four minutes? That was beyond unfair.

Now with an unbreakable Aura, there was no need to avoid her attacks as Beryl pushed through and sheared a gash out of Ruby’s Aura before she could escape.

Ruby was now fighting two experienced Semblance-users that she couldn’t easily damage, with the weapon she _designed_ to do a lot of damage! Three and a half more minutes. Patience games, sadly, were never her strength. Ruby would prefer to end a fight nearly all at once, at super speed, then draw it out any longer.

With their newfound confidence, both bandits attacked simultaneously and aggressively. Ruby blocked their mutual attacks, spinning her scythe to deflect the ax, kicking away the knife’s blade. Beryl was invincible, but his huge ax was deceptively less dangerous than Key’s knife that could phase through her Aura. Focusing on defense left her open for Beryl's attacks, unable to escape before several knicks and cuts were left in her Aura-shield. At this rate, there was no way she could fight them head-on without running out of Aura too quickly.

Ruby zoomed away, transformed _Crescent Rose,_ and started taking potshots with Dust rounds at Key. Targeting him was the only thing she could do until Beryl’s timer ran out.

As Key dodged for cover, already sporting two new holes in his Aura, Beryl tried rushing Ruby. He was fast for his size, but nothing compared to Ruby’s _Red like Roses_.

Appearing beside Key as a red blur, Ruby expanded her Aura to solidly surround her scythe. It was a little trick she’d been trying to practice, locally focusing her Semblance’s power in the Aura covering her weapon. With an explosion of petals, Ruby sliced at his Aura at super speed.

Sure, he could ignore her Aura, but her weapon could still damage him, and even an unenhanced blade moving at near-supersonic packed a punch!

Key grunted in shock. Chunks of his Aura slid off him and shattered on the ground. Down to his last third of reserves, Key dropped his resonance. His Aura cleaned itself back to its blank white glow and pooled down toward his feet, bleeding and spreading into the ground surrounding him and Ruby.

As he smirked, and before Ruby could zip away, the ground around Key exploded with Aura energy, a shining attack shattering the immediate area.

Ruby was flung back, the surprise attack left her open, unable to correct herself midair before she was clotheslined struck by Beryl’s swinging arm.

“Don’t you _dare_ touch him!” Beryl screamed as he threw Ruby to the ground.

Air escaped her lungs on impact, but Ruby managed to immediately accelerate herself, sliding across the ground to escape the ax swinging down at her neck.

Rolling up, Ruby got to her feet, only to find an incoming punch across the face from Beryl. The next attack from his ax she could only partially deflect, both hits breaking sections off her Aura.

_There’s one advantage to this,_ Ruby thought as she zipped away from the larger foe. Right before Key unleashed his AOE attack, he’d dropped his Semblance. It wasn’t the first Semblance-user she’d fought who couldn’t use advanced Aura-manipulation techniques simultaneously with their Semblance power. As long as his Aura was colorless, he couldn’t negate her Aura. This was her opening!

Key managed to react in time to face the incoming speedster. The spinning scythe assaulted him as he barely deflected the repeating attacks, gasping for breath as he threw her off.

_Just what kind of training have these two bandits had?_ Ruby thought as she entered a new stance, still surprised by their capabilities. She rushed forward again, but this time, Key was ready for her. He feigned a block but actually and slipped inside her range, his Aura grazing against hers on contact. His Aura was diluted with red energy as he matched her Aura’s frequency once again.

With speed impressing even Ruby, he aimed his knife and stabbed directly at her now vulnerable face.

No time to charge up her Semblance, Ruby swung up her left arm and blocked the strike. She felt her wrist wrench and a snap in her forearm from the impact. Without Aura-shielding, pushing aside the Aura-powered hand holding the blade even a few inches had taken enough force to break a bone or two. But he'd missed, only slicing off a lock of her black and red hair.

Beryl was already caught up with his partner, trying to grapple Ruby from behind. But Ruby shot straight up in the air, clinging to her weapon with her right hand. She used the canon blasts to change her momentum several times, dodging Key's attempts to shoot her out of the air. Zipping out of sight, she landed on top of a still-standing counter a safe distance from the fight.

Ruby transformed her weapon into the sniper-form one-handed. It was difficult with a broken arm, but she stabilized it enough to land two more shots on Key, grazing his Aura. They would have been solid hits if it weren’t for the arm, but any damage was good damage.

With a scream of rage, Beryl charged, sprinting across the lobby to her position. Ruby instinctively shot at him too, but the Dust round only bounced off him--two and a half minutes remaining.

She hadn’t knocked the smaller one out yet, the big one was invincible and faster than he should be, and Ruby had lost the function of one hand. Using her scythe wasn’t the best idea one-handed, and her Aura-healing wasn’t fast enough to heal her arm before Beryl’s time limit was up.

Luckily, his rage separated him from his partner again. Ruby plotted a course: Up from the top, fakeout petals flying in one direction to draw attention as she actually accelerated to a different side of the lobby and landed in Key’s blindspot. No problem for her.

Moving was as easy as letting out a breath. Ruby landed, just as planned, ready to finish Key off. A moment to steady her aim and one solid hit should cut it. Then she’d only have one problem.

Ruby lined up the shot. Key was right where she wanted him, and Beryl was now on the opposite end of the ruined mall’s lobby. Too far away to do anything about it, despite turning and seeing through her feint. He stared her down with panic in his eyes as he realized she was moments away from shattering his partner’s Aura. Or worse, punching through it and killing the man underneath.

Ruby pulled back the bolt one last time. The spent shell flew to the side as a new Fire-Dust round entered the chamber.

Key was in her sights, still glancing around trying to see where the red-coated hero ended up. Even with one arm, Ruby had no chance of missing.

“Key!!!” Beryl cried out.

Unable to help but see him in the corner of her eye, Ruby saw Beryl’s Semblance burning brighter as the clock on his chest sped up.

_“Frozen Stasis--Two-minute mode!”_

As he screamed, he jabbed two red Dust crystals into his thighs, piercing his Aura through self-created openings, and stabbed into his flesh.

Ruby twisted her head, cursing herself, but she had to do a double-take at this insanity. That was unrefined Dust, and its mixing with his blood would activate its innate elemental effects. The dose he’d taken was suicide.

The call had tipped Key off to Ruby’s position. He raised his arms to pool his Aura in front and pointlessly defend from the imminent sniper shot.

But Ruby barely noticed, her face paling as Beryl exploded.

A Dust-blast engulfed the lower half, catapulting his burning body, flying like a meteor toward the less violent speedster.

Too distracted from the horror and self-mutilation, Ruby’s finger missed the trigger.

Molten embers flicking off his burning flesh, the half combusted man appeared over her as fast as cannon fire. With a full uppercut swing, his ax sliced up at her body before she could correct her grip and defend. A moment before she could charge up her Semblance and escape, the ax dug deep into her shielding. A rending, shredding gash. Aura-energy bleeding around her as it was butchered apart in one hack.

The impact sent Ruby flying. She crashed into a pillar that exploded, fragments of stone and Aura flying back with her as _Crescent Rose_ was flung from her hand’s grip to the corner of the ruins.

Ruby crashed into a second pillar, her Aura exploding on impact before she fell to her knees and slumped to the side against the ground.

When Ruby’s blurry vision finally cleared, nerves still prickling from the recently broken Aura, she saw Beryl and Key standing over her.

Beryl’s legs had healed, miraculously, impossibly, even for Aura-healing, let alone in mere moments. The accelerated time limit ran out--shorter than the original four minutes he’d announced--and his Aura shattered. He winced; a similar stinging pain from a shattered Aura stabbed into his nerves. Beryl had no more Aura, but he still had his ax, and, unlike Ruby, wasn’t injured--somehow! Key was beside him, Aura still up. It was low-power, but enough was left to defeat any freshly shattered Freelancer.

Thinking the situation over carefully, Ruby raised her hands in surrender.

As Beryl moved to lift his weapon, Key grabbed his arm. “Hold up, big guy.”

Beryl stared at the smaller man, confused, but waited as Key looked at his red-colored Aura and licked his lips like he was tasting the air.

A smile spread on his face, like a rush of adrenaline was being pumped into his system.

Ruby looked between the two, wondering what the heck was going on.

“A strong Aura,” Key said. “Exactly what the doc is looking for. Just offing her would be a waste.” He folded his arms and nodded. “Let’s take her back to Black Lily.”

“She hurt you,” Beryl mumbled.

“Yeah, yeah.” Key waved it off with an affectionate smirk. “But it would help the doc, and I know how much you care.”

Beryl thought it over and lowered the ax. “You have a point.”

Ruby cocked her head to the side. Were they trying to recruit her? And who was Black Lily? She’d been keeping her cool, but admittingly, she was super relieved they were keeping her alive for some reason. Ruby had gotten through tighter pinches than this, but she really should have brought Blake. _Sorry, babe. I got in a little trouble_ , Ruby thought. _I’d appreciate a rescue before I get to wherever they’re taking me. Thanks._ Hopefully, Blake wouldn’t lose the trail, and the petals and _Crescent Rose_ stabbed into the ground by the wall should be a good tip-off that she was in trouble.

Turning, Ruby looked up at her new captors, eying them suspiciously. “Your accents…”

Beryl and Key looked between each other, confused.

“You’re trying to hide Solitas accents,” Ruby said. “A good friend of mine is from up there. I have an ear for it.”

Key tsked.

_Atlesian Specialists,_ Ruby’s mind buzzed. _No wonder I had trouble. I knew they were too skilled for unknown bandits, but why are they down here, undercover…? What is Atlas up to this time?_

Key tied her hands with zip tie cuffs, his silence confirming her suspicion, as he pulled her up to her wobbly feet. “Get walking.”

With Ruby in the front, the trio started walking through the torn-up lobby. The area was still smoldering from the fight, a spread of burning vines and tile, various bullet holes, and Aura scorch marks. However, Ruby was having trouble smelling any of it. Shattering an Aura sometimes had that side-effect on its user: the world seemed a touch too numb for a few hours.

Despite that, she could keenly feel Beryl’s glare at the back of her head.

“Key…” Beryl’s deep voice betrayed the spite and rage threatening to boil over inside him. “She doesn’t have to walk, does she?”

The shorter man let loose a musical hum. “All the running around earlier _was_ annoying. Whatcha thinking?”

A strong shove to the back. Ruby fell to the hard floor, and before she could catch her breath, she heard the ax swing down and lodge itself in the stone tile.

Something was wrong. Her senses were misfiring. If she didn’t know better, she’d guess it was another aftereffect of her Aura shattering.

Ruby turned her head, the side of it grinding against the rough ground, and looked down her body.

She blinked--taking several seconds to understand what she was looking at.

An ax blade was where her leg should be.

Blood coated the weapon’s length from the splatter. The ax’s edge was dripping as it was pulled out of the ground with a grunt, Beryl lifting and resting it on his shoulder.

“There! That should stop you from hurting Key just in case your Aura comes back.”

Key let out a shrill laugh. “God! Beryl, that’s fucking brutal, man!”

Ruby didn’t hear anything else they said. She couldn’t have heard them over screaming her throat raw.

Her bound body twisted and writhed in pain. Pain that was digging its way from her thigh up to her spine. It hit her stomach, and bile lurched out from her throat from the shock, hacking it out with sick coughs, the screams uninterrupted.

The limb lay motionless next to her. It wouldn’t move. No matter how much she ordered it to. Nothing but dead meat in a puddle of blood flowing out of both of them. Pooling under her, soaking her already crimson coat.

**Two Years Later…**

Ruby almost buckled over. There was a burning, crushing pain in her foot that no longer existed. She dropped one hand and gripped her thigh, just above the prosthetic where biological nerves met artificial ones. All the pain signals were misfiring and pounding like a headache at the back of her head. Her mind had wandered back to her final battle as a Freelancer, the panic the memory brought starting a chain reaction that threatened to send her collapsing into a fetal position. She knew, logically, this pain was in her head. Her foot didn’t exist anymore; it shouldn’t be able to hurt. But rational observations didn’t help in these situations.

Pulling down the paint mask, Ruby took a deep breath of the cold tundra air. She was alone on top of _Paradise’s_ port wing, finishing up some of the painting with a pressure sprayer, which she set aside as she sat down and stared out at the landscape to calm herself down. Just a small being in a large world. Ruby preferred the safety of her workshop, but there was a comfort to be found in the wide-open wilderness. She was free--free to breathe. In that freedom, there was calm.

The crew had flown and landed near the northern edge of Solitas’s western tundra, heading towards the colder areas of Atlas territory. A stop to recover and slightly adjust the appearance of _Paradise_ , just in case their precautions to avoid any more attention hadn’t been enough.

Ruby let out a long exhale. Her warm breath floated up into that vast clear sky as the memories and pain slowly numbed themselves to a state she could handle.

“Ruby!”

Glancing down, Penny was below, waving an arm, trying to get the mechanic’s attention.

“We’ve finished up! How’s it going up there, friend?!”

Ruby smiled and gave a thumbs up. One more long breath before she stood up, her artificial leg supporting her weight. Carefully, she moved down the ladder, her prosthetic just agile enough to let her slowly scale down it.

When she reached the bottom, she was greeted by the sound of energy impacting metal up by the loading ramp. A Flynt or two were standing with Neon next to a row of propped-up sheet metal. Various dents in all of them from a Flynt smacking them with an Aura-enhanced pipe he was holding in his hand(s). The sizes of the makeshift weapon’s impacts were mostly similar, but as Flynt struck the last one, the indent nearly split the thin metal apart.

Penny, who’d been watching the progress, clapped her gloved hands as Neon looked the results over.

“Are you sure you hit them all with the same strength?” Neon asked.

“Pretty sure,” Flynt said with a nod.

_His grip is better today,_ Ruby noticed. That was good. It had been a few days of Aura-healing, and his hands were usable now, but only to a limit. Because his Aura had never shattered in the fight against Key, it could heal him faster than the captain, who was still unfit for duty.

“What are you three… four doing?” Ruby asked after a recount.

Penny perked up. “Testing Flynt’s Semblance.” She held up a pipe made from a different material than the one Flynt was holding. “Flynt’s strength halves as he Splits, but when he holds Aura-conductive metal, it reaches through his Split-paradox and is almost as strong no matter how many Splits he makes.”

Ruby folded her arms, tapping her paint sprayer against her arm. “I was already going to make your weapon out of that stuff since the Atlas salvage we got from the pirates had some.”

Flynt absorbed the other, wincing, but shook it off. “I need to better understand my Semblance ability and find new ways to use it if I’m going to be any help.”

“Well, good to know the material will be even more effective than we thought.” Ruby looked down at his hands, still bandaged. “But no more experiments until you’re healed. You should know better. You too, Neon…”

Neon shrugged but nodded in agreement: a gesture that communicated that she’d been keeping an eye on him. Probably why he was only tapping metal with a pipe instead of punching it.

“But once you are…” Ruby continued, her attention back to Flynt, “...I can give you some pointers on training your Semblance. Being an ex-Freelancer and all, I have plenty of experience.”

Flynt perked up. “Is that cool?”

“No problem!” Ruby smiled. “You’ve been running on pure power and talent, and that’s impressive for someone with no training, but you’ll let it go to waste like this” She sighed and put her hands on her hips. “Your Semblance’s potential will grow with your Aura, so we’ll put our focus there. Probably start having you go through an Aura-flex routine. I started one of those when I was a kid, but it’s the best place to start.”

Penny put a finger to her chin and tilted her head as a dim green light flashed behind her eyes.

Neon bent in close to the android, her friendly gesture of invading personal space. “What’s up?”

“I’m reviewing and analyzing my data on Semblances,” Penny said.

“Want to get one of your own?” Neon stood up and crossed her arms behind her head. “I never had one, but there’s still hope for you.”

Penny shook her head. “As I’ve informed you, it is impossible for my model to develop one. If my Aura contained one, it didn’t survive the transfer to a machine host.”

Neon nodded pensively and patted Penny’s shoulder. “Well… never give up on your dreams. I believe in you!”

Penny, half ignoring her, walked forward as if lost in thought. “Perhaps it’s because I don't have a soul for a Semblance to graft itself onto.”

Flynt folded his arms. “Do you have any data about that from the engineers who made you? There are so many philosophical questions--”

Ruby walked over and leaned in toward Neon. “Is he drooling?”

Neon nodded, embarrassed. “Same old Kingdom Boy. He’ll never know how to read the room.”

They both chuckled… only to realize that Penny had matched his enthusiasm.

“It’s the question of whether the soul is a construct we use to describe sapience,” Penny continued, “or a third element human science hasn’t discovered.”

“The latter adding a pile of complicated variables onto the question of how mind and Semblance affect each other,” Flynt said.

“There is evidence to suggest Semblance reflects personality but is it one way? And if so, which direction?”

“We can’t begin to properly speculate that until we know for sure if we develop a unique Semblance or if we unlock Semblances that have been with us since birth.”

“Does a personality determine a Semblance’s form, or do humans have an innate Semblance their personality mimics? And if souls are a third element, would they shape a human’s mind and Semblance the same way?”

Flynt nodded as he thought over the (apparently) classic conundrum. “I never liked the idea there was another factor like a soul that determined how I act.”

Penny matched his nodding. “A human’s true nature vs. their free will. You prefer free will over a deterministic outlook?”

“It’s a hell of a lot more comforting.”

“Depends on the individual. Free-will itself can be a source of intense anxiety--”

Neon and Ruby turned toward each other, then mutually put their backs to the discussion.

“Anyway!” Neon said. “Finished up top?”

Ruby nodded as they both looked up at their ship. Paradise was now a red and gold collar scheme. The paint job wouldn’t hide Ruby’s modifications, any trained eye could spot those, but a casual observer wouldn’t easily recognize it as the same ship they’d flown around for their salvaging business for the last half-year.

“Good as new.” Neon sighed in content.

“I guess we stand out a lot more now.”

“Hiding in plain sight, my friend. Bastow didn’t ask for our name, we used fake tracking codes, and I’ve been using different spoof signals since Hailstone. Not my first time casually avoiding the law.”

Ruby smirked. “You’re so full of yourself. I haven't been allowed inside a Kingdom’s walls my entire adult life, you know.”

“Man, you and Blake’s old squad used to get up to a lot of shit, didn’t you?”

“Not a _lot,_ ” Ruby said with a smile. “Just a few really big international incidents.” Her laugh trailed off as memories resurfaced. The power and agency she’d had back then was a gross reminder of what little she had now. It was still overwhelming, but she felt like she could change the world with her own bare hands. Even against impossible odds, she still had the power to fight. Now she was in near-constant pain, down a leg and an Aura--A Ruby Rose who couldn’t even run.

The spiral was broken when Ruby felt a hand rest on her shoulder and Neon leaned her head against her’s.

“Sorry,” Neon whispered. “You alright?”

“I’m fine,” Ruby said, plastering a rough smile across her face. She wasn’t in the mood to even bring it up with Neon, the one person who could understand. Neon had her own glory days she wanted back, but unlike Ruby, Neon could accomplish anything she set her sights on.

Penny and Flynt walked up to them, apparently finished with their philosophizing. Penny was particularly eying Neon's gesture as she carried all the sheet metal they'd experimented on earlier.

Neon stood up, patted Ruby on the back, and walked ahead, leading the group. “Come on! Let’s go tell the other two we’re ready to get the hell out of here!”

Penny went rigid. “The captain! I haven’t checked on her in eighty-two minutes!!!!” She glanced around and fidgeted with her giant armful of metal.

“She’s got her Aura healing back up now.” Neon waved her off. “She’ll be fine.”

“Not for at least another week in her condition!” Penny called back as she rushed ahead and up the ramp, dashing so fast Ruby was surprised her legs didn’t start spinning around like a cartoon character.

Neon chuckled. “Man, she’s got it bad.”

As Neon and Flynt went on ahead, Ruby discreetly rubbed her thigh. All that Aura and Semblance talk was making her leg hurt again. Back when she was just a kid fighting in a world she didn’t understand, her greatest fear had been losing her Aura. It had paralyzed her more than once in combat. Ruby considered what that child would think of herself now? How horrified would she be?

As she hid in her workshop and _Paradise_ took off, heading further north to their next destination, Ruby couldn’t help but wonder if it would still hurt if she still had her Aura. Imagine it, a top-of-the-line, Aura-conducting, professionally made, Atlesian prosthetic designed for hunters and Freelancers. With some physical therapy and her Aura, she probably wouldn’t notice the difference with one of those things. But the leg wasn’t her real disability. Everything afterward was what had ruined her.

The leg wasn’t the only residual pain that haunted her mind. Every so often, Ruby felt it all over again. Her skin, crawling as wires and cords lay across her naked body. The cold sterilized air. Feeling the stares of the observers. The man with the mustache directing the operation. Forced to be awake. Forced to activate her Aura with needles and drugs before the ear-screeching device peeled it off her like her very soul was nothing more than a used bandage. It was just a sample to be stolen away, stored in a bottle they never bothered to tell her where. They’d gotten what they wanted. All she was useful for was tests to observe the effects of losing an Aura. The fate of her _Red like Roses_ was probably classified in some file somewhere. Some official-sounding number assigned to it, stripped of even its name.

What’s losing a leg compared to that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 1/3 of a mini Ruby-centric arc. I wanted to progress her character before we move to the Machina-Heist arc. The next two chapters won’t be a long as this one, but they will be coming out very soon. Thanks for reading!


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